Stargate Thirdspace: The Reboot
by andrewjameswilliams
Summary: Complete restart of Stargate Thirdspace. In the 26th century the cityship Rivendell and a fleet of escorts are sent on an exploration mission to a newly discovered galaxy... and find themselves catapulted into a whole new universe of adventure.
1. Prologue

_**Stargate Thirdspace: The Reboot**_

 **Authors Notes: I bet everyone thought I'd abandoned this story after not updating either version of the original since 2012 – something I'm deeply sorry about its just the muse somewhat dried up for it – but now it's back and hopefully will be better than ever. I'm actually going to be making quite a few changes from the previous two versions of this story as there are a few epic fails that I now cringe at in the original versions.**

 **While this will still primarily be a crossover with Babylon Five I'll be setting things up for a spin off story – sorry it won't be with Halo as I've done previously I have a different universe in mind to play around with *evil grin* - that I'll also be working on occasionally. I'm also going to take out the going back and forth between B5 verse and future SG verse as I'm well aware that that got a bit jarring and confusing for some of my readers so I will no longer be doing it. Also the time when they arrive in B5 verse will be different to when it was originally – it will be much earlier to throw an even bigger monkey wrench in that little order v's chaos pissing contest between the Vorlons and the Shadows.**

 **Finally I would ask that everyone remember that there are no Ori in this version of the Stargate universe and that the Asgard are still alive and kicking though they don't quite look the way everyone remembers. I will be introducing a few Asgard characters in upcoming chapters so you'll see what I mean.**

* * *

 **Prologue**

 **TFS Achilles**

 **March 2** **nd** **2525**

Sitting comfortably in a synthetic leather chair Admiral Jacob Robyns picked up a flexipad and carefully began to reread the orders that had been issued to him. As he carefully scanned the hologram being projected by the flexi he felt some of his old youthful wanderlust – which had prompted him to join the navy in the first place as he'd wanted to see the galaxies – stir back into life.

The orders were for an escort/protection mission, but an escort/protection mission with a difference as it was the kind that didn't come up very often. A mission that would be ready to get underway within the next hour or two at the most – assuming there were no more delays. His forty-one ship strong fleet had been selected to escort a cityship to its destination, then protect her and the tens of thousands of people within when the destination was reached and the city successfully alighted on a new world. Within mere hours now the cityship Rivendell would leave the artificial lagoon where she had been constructed and begin a long two week hyperspace journey to a galaxy that they honestly knew next to nothing about.

The galaxy in question had only recently been detected when a shift in Andromeda's position in the sky – which had begun millions of years ago however due to the distances they'd only recently become aware of it – had unmasked it. They'd consulted the Ancient database and it hadn't been overly helpful when it came to information on this galaxy as it was far off the beaten interstellar track so to speak with no Stargate Network present – meaning the Ancients had never gone there or not found anything interesting enough to warrant the massive expenditure of energy and resources that building a network of gates would have entailed.

Either way they were curious enough about it to send an expedition to investigate.

Putting the pad containing the orders down Jacob leaned back in his chair in thoughtful silence. While the prospect of being one of the first humans to set foot in a new galaxy – especially one so different from the norm – was enough to fill him with excitement, but at the same time he knew that they should be cautious. Expeditions to newly discovered galaxies were always events that weren't to be embarked upon lightly to often in the past his people had done it in a very ad hoc and disorganised fashion and gotten themselves into trouble and encountered enemies they hadn't really been ready to face – enemies like the Wraith. Even when they were cautious going into a new galaxy there was always the possibility of encountering a powerful and hostile spacefaring race, it had happened before after all and such encounters didn't always end favourably for either side. Indeed the last time that had happened two centuries ago it had plunged the Tau'ri as a people into a ten year long bloodbath against the forces of the reptilian Theliax.

Thinking about the new galaxy Jacob hoped they wouldn't encounter anyone with hostile intentions. Still he would be prepared for it if they did have a violent encounter with unfriendly natives – between the ships in his task force and Rivendell's own defences they would hopefully have the firepower to see off any hostile natives. There was also another factor at play that would reduce the likelihood of encountering anyone with hostile intentions.

A long range exploration ship, the _Northern Horizon_ if he remembered her name correctly, was already holding position off the edge of the new galaxy. Holding position and launching repeated robotic probes of the outer edge of the galaxy. They were both looking for a suitable planet for Rivendell to land on once they arrived and for any sign of someone who could potentially be hostile to them. If she found the latter the _Northern Horizon_ had orders from both command and the Senate Exploration and Resource Development Committee to immediately inform the Senate back in the Tau'ri capital city of Avalon on Earth via a high powered subspace burst transmission.

From his orders Jacob knew that the _Northern Horizon_ and her captain Taylor Matheson had orders to join up with Rivendell and his task force when they arrived at the new galaxy. They would drop out of hyperspace at the _Northern Horizon's_ coordinates long enough for the other ship to join formation with them before proceeding to the coordinates of the planet that should have been found for them by that time.

 _That is assuming nothing goes wrong,_ Jacob thought. If something did go wrong, if they didn't find a suitable planet or they encountered another hostile species then contingency plans would be activated. Plans that would, in the case of the former see Rivendell return home and in the case of the latter would see the whole fleet withdraw – they had enough on their plate keeping the peace in this galaxy and in Pegasus as it was. They didn't need to get into a fight with anyone else if they could possibly avoid it.

A bleep from his desk communications console drew him out of his thoughts with a jolt. "Main bridge to Admiral Robyns," Captain Josephine Owens said as a holographic screen showing her face appeared in front of him.

"Yes captain?" Jacob asked.

"Sir we've just received a notification from Rivendell," Josephine replied. "They report that the last of the expedition members and their families have arrived and are being settled in their quarters. Governor Shepherd also indicates that they are almost finished taking on supplies and will be ready to launch inside of thirty minutes."

"Very good, signal the task force to begin powering up for departure," Jacob ordered. "As soon as Rivendell reaches orbit all ships are to assume escort formation Gamma Two around her."

"Aye sir," Josephine acknowledged before signing off to carry out the orders. The holographic screen vanished into nothingness with all the fuss of a bursting soap bubble leaving Jacob alone in his ready room once again.

 _Almost time to go,_ Jacob thought as he turned his attention back to his electronic paperwork, he had a great deal to do – commanding a task force of forty one capital warships and the twenty eight thousand eight hundred men and women in said force was an enormous responsibility and one that generated a considerable amount of paperwork. Paperwork that in his experience never seemed to end as it seemed like no sooner than he finished one pile then another would seemingly materialise out of subspace for him to do. _Join the navy and see the universe, that's what the ads on the Starnet say,_ he thought with a wry smile, _pity they don't tell you about the bureaucratic make work that comes with the adventure._

Given the amount of work he had to do Jacob knew that the time between now and departure would fly by, however he had no intention of not being on the flag bridge when the fleet set out for its destination. A quick command to the desk console with one hand set a fifteen minute alarm while his other hand picked up a readiness report from Captain McKenzie of the _Jutland_ and he began the tedious but necessary task of reading through it.

* * *

 **Central Control**

 **Rivendell, Twenty Minutes Later**

Governor Alison Shepherd looked over from holographic displays floating above her desk when she heard the sound of someone clearing there throat. One of the control room staff stood in the doorway to her office and for a moment she struggled to connect the youthful face to a name, she still hadn't learned the names of all the control room staff. But then again she did have a lot of different things to worry about as the time for departure drew ever closer.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Governor our final checks have been completed," the young man – Jones she now recalled his name to be – replied.

"And," Alison asked bracing herself for the possibility that Rivendell might not be ready for departure, that something had gone wrong with one of the millions of systems and subsystems that the city needed to function not just as a city but as a gigantic spacecraft capable of intergalactic travel. She doubted anything major had gone wrong – the cities A.I Arwen would have immediately informed her if it had – but it was always a possibility. Cityships were the most complex and advanced machines that the Tau'ri knew how to build – even with everything they'd learned from the Ancient database in Atlantis over the last five hundred years, cityships like Rivendell pushed their technological abilities to the absolute limit. Compared to building a cityship things like forging new Stargates and making zero point modules were child's play.

"All systems read as fully operational ma'am," Jones replied grinning. "All three Zed-PM's are plugged into the cities energy grid and providing power as are all neutrino-ion generators. Secondary power generators are engaged and standing by to compensate for any shortfall, though engineering does not believe we will have any power problems. Life support systems are ready to engage as are the shields, sublight drives and the hyperdrive."

"Then we're ready to launch?"

Jones nodded. "Yes ma'am. In fact we're as ready as we will ever be," he said.

Alison grinned. "Then let's get this show on the road," she answered before tapping a command into her terminal dismissing all the holographic display screens and standing up. With Jones preceding her Alison made the short journey across the mezzanine to the city's main control room.

Alison took a moment to look at all the control room staff, taking in their eager, expectant faces. Though her people were professionals she could see the excitement in their posture, they were as eager as she was to begin their mission. A mission that would if successful massive increase their knowledge of both the universe in general and dark matter galaxies in particular. The latter was so mysterious to them; even the Ancients hadn't appeared to know much about the enigmatic galaxies at least if the lack of any real information on them in the Ancient database in Atlantis was anything to go by.

"Alright people listen up. The time we've been working towards for the last year and a half has finally arrived," she said. "We're ready, ready to begin our mission to expand our knowledge of the universe. With luck once this mission is concluded we will have discovered a whole new kind of space for humanity to explore and possibly colonise.

"The city is ready, so are we and so is our escort group," she continued with a wry smile knowing how happy Admiral Robyns would be to be able to finally be ready to get their mission underway. In all the preparation work that had gone on over the last few weeks and months she'd met him a number of times and gotten to know him quite well. She knew him well enough to see that behind the stiff military façade was a man with an incessant curiosity about the universe around them. His service record also attested to that desire to know about the universe as she recalled that for much of his career he'd served on exploration ships with only a handful of tours on warships before he'd reached commander.

"So let us begin," she finished. "Communications contact the shipyard operations centre and request departure clearance."

"Yes ma'am," the officer at the console in question answered and with a single mental command relayed the request to the shipyards control room. Almost immediately a response came in from shipyard control. "We've been cleared to disengage from the shipyard and move up into orbit."

"Then let's get going then," Alison said. "Disengage the clamps holding us to the shipyard lagoon. Then begin departure sequence."

"Yes ma'am," came the response from a number of locations around the control room. A moment later an alert sounded throughout the city, the distorted and discordant noise of the Ancient-style alarm demanding attention.

"Attention all personnel; departure sequence has been initiated," Arwen's voice said over the citywide PA system. "Sublight engine start in sixty seconds. Repeat departure sequence has been initiated, sublight engine start in fifty nine seconds."

"Inertial dampeners powered and engaged," one of the staff reported. "Anti-gravity wave generators powering, sublight drives active."

"Raising fortress shield, all exterior doors and windows closed and sealed," another added.

"Launch in thirty seconds," Arwen said calmly, mighty engines set into the piers of the city greedily hoarding power in preparation for task ahead. The whole of the six and a half kilometre wide cityship began to rumble gently, rising on the gentle thrust of the secondary engines and resting on the very surface of the water.

"Launch in ten seconds…ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four…" The gentle rumble transitioned into a furious shaking, and for a moment it seemed the city might shake itself apart. "…two… one. Firing antigravity thrusters." The shaking ceased for the briefest of moments, a moment of calm in the eye of the storm. Then a titanic _whumph_ seemed to come straight up through the floor and with a faint sensation reminiscent of an old fashioned manual lift the city began a slow but steady rise into the sky.

* * *

To the shipyard workers who'd laboured so long to build and outfit Rivendell the view of her launch was spectacular. Standing on various observation decks on the waterfront they watched as the city sat in her lagoon surrounded by the translucent silver-white bubble of its main shield.

For a moment the city remained stationary then small plumes of steam began to appear all around the perimeter of the shield. The steam grew in intensity, becoming hissing jets of boiling water as the city began to rise. Slowly at first then with ever increasing speed the city moved inexorably upwards, soaring into the sky. Sunlight reflected off the shield gave the protective dome a shimmering quality, and the polished metal and crystal of the city towers made it seem to glow in the yellow-orange light of the K0 type sun. A thick mist descended from the base of the rising city as the shield was made permeable to the water that sat between the piers. As the sheet of water fell the engines turned it into mist which began a long descent to the surface below. Spectacular rainbows rippled in the falling mist turning the warm water into a riot of glorious colour.

Still the city continued to rise, ascending towards the stars. The last of the trapped water left the city shield and the protective barrier again became fully impermeable and trapped a thick bubble of breathable atmosphere around the gleaming towers. At thirty thousand feet above the surface of the planet the cities massive gravitic sublight engines went to full power, the powerful anti-gravity wave providing the final boost to the city. A rippling shockwave of air and distorted gravity blasted out from the base of the city, tearing apart the lazy clouds surrounding it as the city suddenly shot spaceward at incredible speed, becoming rapidly smaller to the cheering observers below.

The atmosphere thinned and darkened as the great spacecraft passed the majority of the atmosphere and through into space, the cities lights all activating and making it look like a miniature galaxy itself. Finally Rivendell broke free of the final layers of Sigma Draconis III's atmosphere and embraced the void. Immediately her ascent began to slow and eventually she came to a halt, in defiance of gravity as the planet lazily continued its spin beneath her.

* * *

"We have achieved orbit, governor," one of the control room staff reported, his voice raising a cheer from all the staff, the security marines guarding the control room and those city residents who'd gathered on the floor of Stargate Operations for the launch.

"Very good," Alison replied smiling and inwardly feeling like joining in with the celebrations at the successful launch. With some small effort she kept herself focused on the task at hand – there would be time to break open a bottle of champagne and celebrate the successful launch later. "Power the hyperdrive," Alison ordered. "Set a course for the rendezvous point with the _Northern Horizon._ Sensors, where are our escorts?"

"Admiral Robyns task force is approaching at maximum safe orbital velocity, ma'am," the young woman at the sensor station replied.

"Governor we're being hailed by the _Achilles_ ," communications added. "Admiral Robyns says his ships are preparing to move into escort position around us. He would like to know our status."

"Advise him that we are powering up our hyperdrive and will be ready to get underway as soon as he is," Alison instructed.

"Yes ma'am." After a moment the comm. chirped again. "The _Achilles_ has acknowledged our transmission and request we link our navigational systems to theirs so the whole fleet can depart together."

"Arwen, set up a link with the _Achilles_ navigational computer," Alison ordered which prompted the holographic avatar of the cities A.I to materialise beside her. Like all A.I's Arwen had been permitted to choose the form her avatar appeared in and had chosen an appearance that matched her namesake. She appeared as a classic elfin princess, beautiful and ageless with porcelain doll features, jet black hair and finely pointed ears while being dressed in a long flowing robe of intricate weave and laced through with runic symbols.

"Setting up the link now, Governor," Arwen replied with a smile even as a part of her vast mind negotiated with the main computer on the _Achilles_ and was permitted through its adaptive firewalls and given a link to the dreadnought's navigational control systems. "Link established."

"Excellent," Alison replied turning to look at the main holographic systems display plate at the back of the control room. Currently it showed a sensor grid of the space immediately around the city with light blue chevrons representing the bulk of Admiral Robyns' destroyers and cruisers moving into escort formation around the blue snowflake symbol that represented the city. The larger chevron representing the _Achilles_ moved around the city taking up station ahead of them with a pair of cruisers flanking her in mutual support formation. In practically no time at all the sensor display confirmed that Rivendell was floating in the centre of a defensive sphere of warships with the mighty dreadnought _Achilles_ and her supporting cruisers holding position directly above the cities main spire.

"Governor, I'm monitoring a transmission from orbital control to the _Achilles,_ " Arwen reported then the avatar smiled. "We're being given clearance for departure: all civilian traffic has been cleared from our path. We can leave whenever Admiral Robyns gives the order."

"Then its Admiral Robyns call now," Alison replied.

"Technically that would be true, Governor Shepherd," Admiral Robyns voice abruptly said from behind her making Alison jump and spin around. To find herself face to face with a life size, three dimensional holographic projection of the admiral.

"I'm sorry to startle you," Robyns said and Alison smiled back to say it was alright. "But I thought it would be fitting if you were the one to give the order to get underway."

Alison's smile widened, she was deeply touched by the ceremonial significance of Admiral Robyns letting her give the order to get underway. "That's very good of you," she said before straightening up and putting as much of the authority that had been vested in her as she could in her tone as she spoke again.

"The word is given, Admiral," she said. "Take us to the _Northern Horizon._ "

Admiral Robyns straitened to attention. "Aye ma'am," he said formally before looking over at someone else on his flag bridge, someone that Alison naturally couldn't see, and giving a small nod before he turned back to her. He gave one final smile then his hologram rippled with rainbow light and vanished as the holographic transmission from the _Achilles_ was closed down from the dreadnoughts side.

Alison stared at the point where the hologram had been for a moment, before moving forward to the front of the control room to look down at the floor of Stargate Operations. As she walked a faint humming whine began to be heard throughout the city as the great spacecraft's massive hyperdrive system reached full power.

For a few moments the sphere of ships remained stationary in space above Sigma Draconis III, the light of the star playing off both the shields of the cityship and the polished silver-grey hulls of the warships making them glow like angels. Then with a perfect coordination that would have made any profession ballet troop in the universe green with envy they began moving, accelerating out of orbit.

For several seconds the massive group of ships continued driving into open space leaving the planet behind them. There hyperdrives came to full strength and under careful direction from the flagship activated – all the subspace fields meshing together seamlessly before applying tremendous pressure to the very structure of space itself.

For a millisecond the universe resisted the inconceivable pressure but then the quantum folds that separated normal space and subspace parted. A truly gargantuan hyperspace window burst into existence with a silent roar of power, spilling subspace energy into normal space as a brilliant greenish-white light. The fleet and cityship paused for a moment before the monstrous tear in space-time they'd created as if in awe of their accomplishment, before in perfect unison leaping forward and vanishing into the window and hyperspace.

No longer being held open by the combined power of the fleet's hyperdrives the energy vortex of the window folded in upon itself before vanishing returning the state of local space time to normal. Even as it closed its makers were already gone from the Sigma Draconis system – driving through hyperspace towards the distant explorer ship _Northern Horizon_ at speeds millions of times that of light.

The Tau'ri mission to the newly discovered galaxy, and a destiny nobody could possibly have foreseen, had begun.

* * *

 **Codex: Technology: Computers: Flexipad**

Flexipads, or Flexi's, are a distant descendent of the computer tablets first developed on Earth in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. When inactive a flexi takes the form of a thin sheet of translucent crystalline material approximately six inches square that appears featureless. However when activated by the DNA and neural patterns of its owner or authorised user a flexi creates a fully interactive three dimensional holographic display and keyboard enabling the user/owner to operate the computer with ease.

 **Codex: Species: Spacefaring Races: Theliax**

The Theliax are a reptilian species native to the Andromeda Galaxy. Technologically advanced and highly xenophobic the Theliax came into contact with the Tau'ri when explorers arrived in Andromeda in the mid-twenty third century and began to explore the network of Stargates constructed their by the Ancients. A war soon erupted that lasted for over a decade before the more numerous and much more technologically advanced Tau'ri forces drove the Theliax back to their home system and forced the Theliax to surrender.

In the aftermath a campaign began – that continues to this day – to rid the Theliax of their xenophobia with the hope of one day making them productive members of the interstellar and intergalactic community.

~~~/~~~

 **Authors Notes: Well here's the first part of the new version of this story done. There aren't many changes from the original beyond some new terminology here and there and the removal of references to a dark matter galaxy – which I admit now didn't work as well as I'd thought it would – instead replacing it with a new and unknown galaxy in the local group.**

 **As seen above I will be periodically adding some codex entries to this story – and its spin-off when the time comes and if the muse cooperates – just to fill in some of the details of Tau'ri technology and the history that has taken place over the centuries that have passed since we last saw them.**

 **Now with Christmas only four days away I doubt I will be able to get any further updates done as I have far too much still to do to get ready for it to have much time for writing. So I will just take this moment to say you've all been great readers this year and to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.**


	2. Chapter One

_**Stargate Thirdspace: The Reboot**_

 **Chapter One**

 _The scout cruiser floated silent as a ghost amid the cloud of dust, gas and rock that marked the outer border of the Sinhindrea's domain. The cruiser and the legion of Sinhindrea hunters aboard it had been on station for weeks now, keeping their sensors pointed outwards, penetrating the perimeter nebulous clouds and gazing into the great void between galaxies._

 _The reason for their vigil hung – almost invisible against the backdrop of space – a thousand light years out into that great emptiness. A single alien vessel hung there, a vessel that for weeks now had been launching probe after probe into the Sinhindrea's domain – indeed it was only through backtracking the hyperspace trajectories of the probes that they knew the ship was there at all – though the purpose of the probing was not fully known. The High Lords believed that the inferiors crewing the vessel were surveying the largely uninhabited outer regions in preparation for an incursion._

 _An incursion into their domain was not something the Sinhindrea could, or would, allow the very thought of inferiors desecrating there sacred space with their foul presence was absolutely intolerable. When the inferiors came the Sinhindrea were determined to be ready for them, ready to make them understand that coming here would mean challenging they who were power beyond the comprehension of lesser minds._

 _New sensor readings caught the attention of the cruisers crew. An extremely large hyperspace trace – the kind that could only be produced by a large number of ships travelling in close formation – was approaching the inferior's vessel. Was the main force of inferiors coming at last?_

 _Excited at the prospect that there long vigil could soon be over the junior Hunt Master in command of the scout cruiser used his cybernetic link with the ships systems to send a message to the nearest fleet base. A message informing the patiently waiting border defence fleet of the development so they could prepare to intercept should the inferiors make a move towards the Sinhindrea's domain, before settling back to wait and resume watching._

 _Like the rest of his crew the Hunt Master hoped the inferiors made a move soon, he had grown weary of watching and waiting. It would be nice to bring the hunt to a successful conclusion, especially if in their inevitable victory they sowed the seeds of an even greater hunt in the future. Quietly salivating – as much as was possible for an aquatic species to salivate anyway – at the prospect of bountiful hunts in the future the Master calmed his crew and turned his full attention back to the sensors, resuming the long watch._

* * *

 **TFS Achilles**

Admiral Jacob Robyns knew there was an excited spring in his step as he stepped onto the flag bridge of the _Achilles_ , but he didn't care. He didn't mind his crew seeing his own excitement at the thought that the first phase of their mission was nearly completed. He knew they shared it as the flight from Sigma Draconis to here had been long, and thus somewhat boring, for everyone aboard the _Achilles_. Especially as they were used to only spending a day or two in hyperspace when they wanted to go somewhere outside of their own galaxy. Certainly they weren't used to taking two whole weeks to get somewhere, especially as they could normally have travelled this distance in at most three days had they been able to use their hyperdrives at full capacity.

Unfortunately they hadn't been able to, the reason being the cityship that was their charge.

Rivendell, like all modern cityships, wasn't anywhere near as fast as a warship was. Her hyperdrives were designed more for endurance – as propelling something as massive and unwieldy as a cityship through hyperspace would put a massive strain on any known hyperdrive – than for speed. It reduced maintenance costs – though money wasn't an obstacle to their society – in comparison to the drive of a warship, which paid for its speed with a faster wear time on critical hyperdrive components like the subspace field coils.

Thankfully now though they were here, approaching the rendezvous point with the _Northern Horizon_. After the exploration ship joined up with the fleet they would be able to proceed with the next phase of the mission – assuming of course that the probes the exploration ship had been launching had discovered an appropriate landing site for Rivendell. Jacob hoped they had as he wasn't sure he would be able to take the crushing disappointment of having to take Rivendell back home if they hadn't. He didn't want to think of the massive hit that moral throughout his task force would take if the worst happened and they had to just turn around and take the city home.

Shaking off his thoughts he turned his attention to the here and now. "Status report," he ordered as he moved across the flag bridge to the command chair.

"We're approaching the _Northern Horizon's_ last reported position sir," the young lieutenant at navigation reported, seeing the same information both on her consoles holoscreen and in her mind that her counterpart would be seeing on the command bridge "normal space reversion in one minute."

"Understood," Jacob replied as he settled down into his chair. Almost immediately the command datastream opened into the back of his awareness and leaning back in the chair he partially immersed himself in the flow of information and sensed the other bridge staff connected to the datastream even as he pulled up a general ship and fleet status update. Translucent blue characters in the familiar blocky language of the Ancients – which they'd adopted themselves as the language was better at conveying various scientific, mathematical and higher dimensional concepts than other languages save the rune-like language of the Asgard – suddenly seemed to overlay his vision, allowing him to quickly and efficiently get fully up to date with the state of not just the state of his flagship but the entire fleet.

It took only a few moments to review the information and he was pleased to note that there were no problems with Rivendell or any of his ships. All ships were fully operational and the cityship especially was holding up well to the stresses of long term hyperspace travel. The data feed from Arwen to the main computer of the _Achilles_ indicated that the city's ZPM power was holding steady at 80% with the network of neutrino-ion generators added to the cityship design as a secondary power source taking over more of the 6.5 kilometre wide spacecrafts colossal power demands as the zero point modules were slowly but steadily drained. It was good to see that Rivendell was weathering the passage so well, moving something of its size and mass through hyperspace was never easy and cityships were such complex machines that there was always a possibility – albeit remote – that something would go wrong especially on such a long hyperspace flight as it was the time when the cities systems were put under the most strain.

Withdrawing from the datastream – allowing it to fade into the back of his thoughts – Jacob blinked as the translucent characters disappeared from in front of his eyes. He turned his attention to the massive high resolution holoscreens at the front of the flag bridge even as a faint change in the sound of the ships hyperdrive registered with him. A change that he was infinitely familiar with as it indicated that the drive was starting to power down, slowing the ship down ready for reversion to normal space.

"Normal space reversion in twenty seconds," navigation reported and Jacob straightened in his chair and prepared himself for the sudden deceleration forces that the ship would soon be subjected to. Deceleration forces that the inertial dampeners were never quite able to fully dissipate.

"Reversion in ten seconds… nine… eight…" _Here we go,_ Jacob thought as the countdown continued, "five… four… three… two… one initiating reversion to normal space."

Jacob nodded as a jolt abruptly rippled through the whole four kilometre length of the _Achilles_ just as the luminous blue tunnel of hyperspace visible on the front screens flashed brilliantly then dissolved into nothingness. For a moment there was nothing visible beyond a multi-coloured blur of optical distortion as the whole fleet was spat out of subspace back into normal space at a sizeable fraction of the speed of light. Gravitic sublight engines engaged instantly and almost immediately overpowered the effects of hyperspace inertia, dumping the fleets speed down to the point where all the warships and the giant cityship were at a dead halt in space.

The forward screens cleared showing the galaxy that they were heading for dominating the space directly ahead of them. It looked normal enough, a barred spiral galaxy similar to their own though from here it looked smaller than the Milky Way, or Avalon as they tended to call it these days as it kind of sounded better, did. He had to admit it looked beautiful, in some ways more beautiful than any of the other galaxies he'd been to over the years – mostly because it was so unknown as with most of the other galaxies the Tau'ri had explored or were in the process of exploring they – thanks to Ancient star maps and database entries, which could frequently be infuriatingly cryptic – already had some idea what was there. To encounter a galaxy that was completely unknown – well that was a rare treat indeed and he couldn't wait to get started.

Irritated Jacob put the explorer in him back into his box, kicking and screaming the whole way, and instead focused on what had to happen next and what his primary responsibility in this mission was. "Fleet status," he ordered.

"Rivendell and all fleet ships have successfully reverted to normal space sir," one of the sensor techs reported, "all ships are maintaining optimal separation while still being in defensive formation around Rivendell. Short range scanners have detected the _Northern Horizon_ sir, there holding position on a bearing of two six one mark one, six nine. Distance point six five AU."

"Show me," Jacob instructed even as a profound sense of relief fell upon him that all his ships and Rivendell had transited to normal space safely. With so many ships travelling so close together through hyperspace there was always a risk – albeit an incredibly small one, so small that it was more theoretical than anything else – of collisions upon reversion to normal space.

The screens shimmered once drawing his attention and brought in an automatically enhanced image of the _Northern Horizon_ as she hung motionless against the galaxy studded darkness of intergalactic space. The shape of the exploration ship was familiar and comforting as he'd spent much of his career on one or another – a sleek, flat shape vaguely reminiscent of a more angular version of a manta ray from Earth's oceans. From a distance the ships gleaming silver-white hull appeared smooth and seamless when Jacob knew it wasn't as it would be covered with sensor panels, small communications arrays and domes, not to mention the hatches for the ships virtual armada of small craft and which concealed the retractable pulse cannon turrets and drone weapon launching systems of the exploration ships defensive weapons array. From a distance she was a beautiful ship to look at and didn't look at all threatening unlike the vaguely knife-like hull forms of his warships and the large and very visible weapons arrays they mounted.

At that moment one of the comm. stations chimed softly for attention. "Admiral we're being hailed" the officer on duty at the station reported "it's the _Northern Horizon_ Captain Matheson is requesting holographic contact. Rivendell is also hailing us Governor Shepherd wishes to be brought in on any discussion."

"Very well put them both through," Jacob instructed standing up from his command chair for a moment. Though he could holographically communicate just as easily from a sitting position he preferred to stand during such contacts, most people in his experience did. Immediately ahead of him two patches of air momentarily glowed with a rainbow light similar to the effect of a transporter beam and distorted in the shape of two human bodies before solidifying into two holographic projections that looked as real to Jacob as if they were actually physically standing in front of him.

"Admiral Robyns, Governor Shepherd, welcome to the arse end on nowhere I trust you had a pleasant journey," Captain Taylor Matheson said in greeting while grinning broadly showing pearly white teeth that contrasted nicely with his chocolate brown skin and his stance indicated a faintly irrelevant, flippant air that was something of a tradition in some quarters of the Tau'ri armed forces; a tradition that went all the way back to the pre-unification Stargate Command and such officers as the legendary Jack O'Neill.

Jacob chuckled and a glance at Alison Shepherds hologram also showed she was choking back laughter. "Pleasure to be here, Captain," he answered looking at the other man and fighting back his own grin. "And yes we did have a good flight, long and boring but uneventful."

"Glad to hear it," Matheson replied before turning to business. "We have sent repeated probes into the galaxy's outer regions looking for a suitable landing site for Rivendell."

"Have you found anything?" Jacob asked.

"We have indeed, though it is far from ideal. There is a planet four hundred and seventy-five light years inside the galaxy orbiting a G-type star. The planet is habitable but only barely as it's at the far edge of the liquid water zone – average temperature at the equator is only twelve degrees centigrade, anything above or below the tropics is virtually uninhabitable without thermal suits. The planet does have an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and it's just warm enough for liquid oceans though icebergs have been observed to drift from the largely frozen northern and southern seas to the equatorial regions before melting."

"Your right captain that isn't ideal," Alison commented with a frown. It's only barely habitable. It will do though as if we're going to stay long term terraforming it will not be that difficult."

"I know it's not ideal but it's all we could find," Matheson replied. "The region appears to contain unusually high levels of dark matter particulates that are creating some kind of interference in subspace. All the probes we've sent in haven't been able to see more than a hundred to a hundred and fifty light years in any direction. We've tried daisy chaining them and it's not helped that much though we wouldn't have found the planet in question if we hadn't."

"Will it affect our ship based sensors the same way?" Jacob asked with a concerned frown. He didn't particularly like the idea of going somewhere and being effectively rendered blind to danger until literally the very last minute. Matheson nodded. "It will," he admitted. "However our ship based sensors, not to mention Rivendell's sensors, have a lot more power and resolution than anything that can be mounted on a probe. The interference shouldn't be that bad, scientists here believe it will cut our long range scan radius in half they're working with our A.I Pearl to develop a program that will filter out the worst of the interference but it's slow going."

"Half of normal range," Jacob replied feeling a little happier, half normal range would mean they wouldn't be completely blind – they'd still be able to detect incoming ships over a distance of two hundred and fifty light years and five thousand light years in case of Rivendell's main sensor array. "It's better than nothing. Have the scientists given you any idea how long it will take for them to come up with the filtering program, captain?"

Matheson shook his head. "I'm afraid not," he said. "The interference affects subspace in a way we have never seen before."

Alison frowned and entered the conversation again. "I'll ask Arwen to look in our copy of the Ancient database, see if the Ancients had information on this kind of interference and how to counter it," she said.

"Assuming there is such information and that the Ancients actually filed it properly for once," Matheson replied with a grin knowing how the Ancients – or Alterans, or Lanteans, or The Ancestors depending on who you talked to – had apparently been absolutely hopeless at three things, those being naming things, combat of all kinds and filing things in an orderly, logical manner – instead they'd had the very nasty habit of just putting a file wherever they had room in their database. Which meant finding anything could be more than a little infuriating and was one of the reasons why they'd created advanced A.I's to add some actual logic and structure to the damned database.

"Knowing the Ancients I wouldn't bet on it," Alison replied a look of momentary frustration – which was understandable to anyone who ever tried to get information out of the overly complex, extremely convoluted and totally illogical thing the Ancients called a database – appearing on her face. After a moment she pushed it aside and focused on more immediate concerns. "So what do we do now," she asked. "Do we float here in the void until the filtration program is developed? Or do we continue to the planet Captain Matheson has found?"

"I see no real reason why we shouldn't continue as planned," Jacob replied. "While the interference is a matter of some concern we would still be able to detect a threat quick enough that we'll be able to respond to it even with our long distance scanning range cut in half.

"In addition once Rivendell has landed I could redeploy some of my ships into sentry positions which would allow us to extend our range back towards the norm even if we don't come up with a counter to the interference," he continued. "So no I don't see a reason why we cannot continue with our mission as planned."

"I agree there is nothing preventing us continuing with our mission," Matheson added in agreement more than eager to move into the new galaxy and really get started on their mission. To a born explorer like him it had been beyond frustrating to wait here in the void when the probe scans had already hinted at the mysteries the galaxy a few thousand light years away contained. Mysteries that had had the explorer/scientist in him eager to get going being held back by the part of him that was a soldier obeying his orders.

Alison frowned and her hologram looked down at the polished marble-effect metal deck of the _Achilles_ flag bridge for a moment deep in thought. As the governor of Rivendell the final say on if they took the cityship into the galaxy was hers and hers alone. After a few moments of quietly weighing the pros and cons in her mind she made her decision. Alright gentlemen we'll press on," she said at last looking back up.

"Excellent," Jacob said. "Captain Matheson, transmit the coordinates of the planet you found to the rest of the fleet then move your ship into formation with us. I'll have a few destroyers clear a space for you on Rivendell's ventral side."

"Aye sir," Matheson replied.

"Governor please make sure everyone on Rivendell is ready to resume flight."

"We're ready over here admiral don't worry about us," Alison replied.

"Good. Okay then people let's do this," Jacob answered with a smile prompting Alison and Matheson to do the same before their holograms rippled with rainbow light and disappeared as the communications links were closed down. He returned to his command chair before giving his next order, even as part of his mind noted the appearance of new information in the command datastream – the destination coordinates being transmitted from Pearl the A.I on the _Northern Horizon_ to the navigational systems of the whole fleet.

"Communications instruct destroyer squadron three to break formation and move towards the _Northern Horizon_ and assume escort formation alpha around her. Also instruct destroyer squadron four and the _Concordia_ to clear an appropriate place in the formation for the _Northern Horizon_ and her escort on Rivendell's ventral side."

"Aye sir."

Silent as ghosts in the vacuum of space and with the effortless grace of the predators that they were the four ships of destroyer squadron three broke away from the spherical defensive formation around Rivendell and began advancing towards the distant _Northern Horizon_ even as the larger exploration vessel powered up its sublight drive and moved to meet up with them. Simultaneously behind them the space around Rivendell's ventral side became a beehive of activity as destroyers and cruisers adjusted their positions in the defensive formation opening a gap that the exploration ship would just be able to slip into.

The destroyers of squadron three headed by the _Akagi_ approached rendezvous with the explorer and as they crossed a specific point in space the ships began to split apart. There normal mutual support formation blossoming open like a flower embracing the dawning of a new day. In an impressively synchronised display the destroyers deployed into a diamond shaped formation around the _Northern Horizon_ with one taking up position directly above her, another directly below and one each off the flanks of the much larger vessel, before all four turned gracefully in their own lengths so there bows matched the bearing of the bigger ships bow, all the while matching their speed with the explorers.

With a precision that appeared effortless – but which was in reality a complicated ballet – the explorer and her new escort moved into formation with Rivendell – taking up position beneath her so the great snowflake shadow of the cityship obscured the distant weak light of the stars in neighbouring galaxies.

Once the modified formation was firmly established the cityship and her expanded escort once again powered up there hyperdrives. As most of them had done back at Sigma Draconis two weeks before they combined the powerful subspace fields produced by the mighty engines applying tremendous pressure to a single point in space-time. For a moment the fabric of space-time resisted before the barrier between normal space and the realm of subspace known as hyperspace broke down and a gargantuan hyperspace window burst into existence with a blast of aquamarine light and a silent roar of raw power.

For a few moments the fleet remained stationary and had anyone been watching they might have gotten both hints of awe at the monster they'd created and a sense of muscular power gathering in the ships. Then with a breath-taking suddenness and a blur of optical distortion from the speeds involved the whole fleet shot forward in unison, vanishing into the swirling vortex of light, hawking radiation and subspace energies that was the hyperspace window. With the ships gone and no longer being held open by the combined subspace fields the glowing rent in the space-time continuum shrunk and vanished as if it had never been present at all returning total inactivity to the great void between galaxies.

* * *

 _The scout cruiser observed the massive group of inferior's ships entering hyperspace on a vector that would take them to an uninhabited system not far from one of the largest of the Sinhindrea's outlying settlements._

 _The Hunt Master commanding the cruiser was puzzled by the inferiors apparent choice of destination – even though he wasn't particularly surprised as a number of the aliens probes had swept the system repeatedly for the last week or so – as while there was a planet in the liquid water zone in the system it wasn't what the Sinhindrea would generally consider habitable. Its waters were too cold to sustain even there hearty kind, even with all the technology they had available to them to try and make things more bearable. The junior Hunt Master couldn't help but wonder if the new inferior's were a cold adapted species – if they were then the planet would be perfect for them._

 _After a moment the Hunt Master dismissed his thoughts. Being cold adapted or not the inferiors were still that, inferiors and invaders. Invaders who would soon be taught the age old lesson that so many species had learnt since his kind had taken to the stars. The lesson that the Sinhindrea were power beyond comprehension, hunger beyond understanding, right before they were destroyed. Knowing his duty the Hunt Master sent an advisory to the High Lords and the waiting fleet advising them of the alien's precise vector and estimated arrival time. Then through the cyber link with the ship directed his crew to set course for the system themselves and to engage the hyperdrive at maximum speed. With a little luck they would reach the system before the inferiors, after their long vigil it would be nice to be the first ones to teach the inferiors the age old lesson right before consuming them. To a soul his crew agreed and hurriedly prepared the ship for its journey._

 _Moments later the scout cruiser slipped out of the nebula that had concealed its presence from the alien scanners and entered hyperspace on an intercept course with the aliens. The crew of hunters on board eager for action against the new inferiors who'd dared enter the sacred hunting grounds of the Sinhindrea._

* * *

 **Ten Minutes Later**

The icy world long ignored and dismissed as useless and uninhabitable by the sinister denizens of its galaxy continued its lonely, two and a half Terran year orbit of its parent star. From orbit it resembled a white and blue marble with the occasional flash of grey where mountains and volcanoes broke through the thick blanket of ice and snow that dominated the bulk of its surface. Cold blue-grey seas provided little contrast to the inhospitable frozen landmasses.

Suddenly in an orbit high above the planets northern polar region a purple-blue hyperspace window burst into existence. Emerging from the glowing tear in space-time was a ship that for a moment was invisible beyond the optical distortion of hyperspace inertia. The distortion faded revealing a ship that would give almost anyone who saw it nightmares. It was long and dark, two long blackish-grey gun barrel-like structures projected from a V-shaped structure that itself merged into an equally black-grey ring structure that bisected a glowing orb of purple-blue light, at the rear of the ring two small opening glowed with light propelling the menacing ship along through space.

Without fanfare the Sinhindrea scout cruiser manoeuvred into position in the centre of the magnetic vortex created by the planets pole. Here its stealth systems coupled with the natural interference of the fluctuating ambient magnetic fields would render it invisible to its prey until it was far too late for them to escape. The cruiser settled into position and began a slow preparation of its weapons systems while it waited in orbit for its prey to show up.

It didn't have to wait long.

One hundred thousand kilometres beyond the planets orbit space abruptly warped and distorted as it was suddenly subjected to a tremendous force from within. The folds of space-time parted and a truly massive hyperspace window burst into existence. A millisecond later the forty-three ships of the Tau'ri sent to this galaxy emerged from the window there outlines blurred and indistinct as they fought against the effects of hyperspace inertia. After a moment the distortion faded away as the fleet dropped to a low sublight speed before coming to a virtual dead halt in space with the planet right in their sights, there only movement now beyond a slow forward drift towards the planet in question.

For a few moments nothing more happened then small dots began to separate both from the dreadnought _Achilles,_ the _Northern Horizon_ , the four heavy cruisers and six standard cruisers with the fleet as they began deploying remotely operated Hornet fighters from there hanger bays. Within moments the small but well-armed fighters spread out from their parent ships and surrounded Rivendell and the rest of the fleet, establishing a standard combat space patrol around them.

* * *

 **Flag Bridge**

 **TFS Achilles**

Sitting comfortably in his command chair Admiral Jacob Robyns frowned slightly as his light brown eyes took their first look at the interior of this new galaxy. It looked the same as any other, a planet hanging there ahead of them back dropped by a sea of stars shot through with multi-coloured nebulae and dense field of interstellar dust. The planet looked the same as planets always did, though he had to admit that the grey-blue oceans and endless expanses of white snow and ice that dominated the landmasses made it look distinctly unpleasant. _If we're going to stay here long term we either need to find another planet to land Rivendell on or terraform this one more to our liking,_ he thought.

"What a depressing place," someone on the flag bridge commented and Jacob didn't feel like disciplining the speaker for talking when not addressed or when there was nothing to report. Besides he kind of agreed with him.

"It is kind of," he agreed aloud surprising the flag bridge crew that he wasn't speaking to discipline the crewman. "Hopefully we'll get used to it or this is going to be a very long deployment. Sensors scan the planet for a suitable landing site for Rivendell and anything else on the surface of interest."

"Aye sir," the senior sensor tech replied before quietly reissuing the order to his subordinates on both the flag and command bridges. Almost immediately invisible beams of subspace energy reached out not just from the _Achilles_ but the rest of the fleet as they began to search for both an appropriate landing site for the giant cityship and any valuable resources on the planet. Resources that would justify the costs in time, energy and resources that it would take to transform the barren, frozen world into a green paradise suitable for permanent human habitation.

A soft crystalline sounding bleep from one of the communications terminals broke the efficient silence that had descended on the flag bridge. "Admiral we're being hailed by the destroyer _Griffin's Wing_ ," the tech manning the console reported. "They've detected an anomaly in the northern polar region of the planet. However they are unable to ID it due to magnetic interference."

Jacob frowned slightly. _Whatever could that be,_ he thought before deciding that whatever it was they needed to investigate it a.s.a.p. "Check with the _Northern Horizon_ ," he ordered. "See if the probes sent into this system spotted the anomaly in the past."

"Aye sir," the technician replied before with a thought establishing a link with Pearl the A.I of the _Northern Horizon_ and asking her to check the probe data and compare it to the sensor readings from the _Griffin's Wing_. After a moment Pearl gave a surprising but not completely unexpected response. "Admiral Pearl reports that there was no anomaly at the northern polar region in any of the probe scans of the planet or the system."

"Hmm maybe the probes of this system has attracted the attention of some locals," Jacob thought aloud. "Communications contact the _Northern Horizon_ and destroyer squadron three; have them move to investigate the anomaly. If it's a ship have them try to establish contact. All other ships hold position and stop planetary scans until the anomaly is investigated."

"Aye sir."

As the communications officers relayed his instructions to the rest of the fleet Jacob leaned back in the command chair. Ignoring the command datastream for now he thought about the anomaly that a sharp eyed sensor tech on the _Griffin's Wing_ had spotted and the fact that it hadn't been spotted before now by one of the recon probes launched by the _Northern Horizon_. He was convinced that it had to be a ship, it was the only thing that made sense as short range high resolution scans were so far completely unaffected by the dark matter interference. But if it was a ship sent by some local species to investigate the probe flights why were they trying to hide?

 _Maybe our numbers have them frightened,_ he thought knowing that the sight of forty-three Tau'ri starships one of them a 6.5 kilometre wide flying city could come across as very intimidating even though the fleet was tiny by Tau'ri standards. Any alien denizens of this galaxy wouldn't know them, wouldn't know that they were a generally peaceful people who would only resort to violence if attacked first. All they would see would be forty-one heavily armed and armoured vessels that were clearly warships, warships that could potentially be the advanced units of an invasion force.

Jacob scowled as that thought occurred to him. If the anomaly was indeed a ship and its occupants thought them the vanguard of an invasion fleet then it was imperative they establish contact with them as soon as possible. Establish contact and make them aware of their peaceful intentions and that the warships were only present to protect the cityship and wouldn't engage in offensive action unless provoked to do so.

"Admiral," one of the communications officers called bringing Jacob out of his thoughts. "The _Northern Horizon_ and her escort are approaching the anomaly. They confirm it's a ship, unknown configuration. There sending us a video feed."

"Show me," Jacob instructed a moment before a holographic screen blinked into existence in front of him showing the alien ship and the moment he saw it he felt a chill go down his spine and his stomach knot. Something about the alien vessels sleek if very alien lines and the transparent orb that contained purple-blue energy touched something inside him, down in the very fibres of his being. Something that screamed that the ship was a thing of evil, of darkness, a ship that he should either burn from the sky, slice in half or blast to pieces as soon as possible if he wanted to live. With effort he fought down the impulse to order the _Northern Horizon_ and the destroyers with her to open fire on the aliens with every weapon they had. _Why do I suddenly want to blast them out of the sky,_ he thought even as the datastream alerted him to some kind of transmission being directed towards them from the alien ship.

He didn't have long to ponder the signal or the question of why he suddenly wanted to destroy the alien vessel for a sudden commotion at the back of the flag bridge caught his attention. Turning his command chair in the direction the noise was coming from he saw to his shock that one of the marines who guarded the entrance to the flag bridge slumped against the bulkhead. The light combat armoured man was shaking like a leaf with gauntleted hands pressed against the side of his head, his eyes were closed and he was sweating profusely as if he had just run a marathon. The marine's entire demeanour suggested that he was fighting something, something insubstantial that threatened to overwhelm him.

"Corporal Stevens," he asked in concern rising from his chair. "Corporal what is it? What's the matter?" At the sound of his voice the younger man's eyes flew open and locked onto his own and in them Jacob saw a frightening combination of fear, terror and desperation.

"Admiral… h…h…help me," Stevens begged his voice slurred as he seemed to fight with himself. "S…s…something is trying to t…t…take o…ov…over my mind. I c… arrrggh." Stevens closed his eyes again before emitting a second piercing cry of pain, terror and despair. His hands dropped to his sides and he stopped shaking, a moment before he pushed himself up off the bulkhead and opened his eyes again.

Stevens moved away from the bulkhead and slowly looked around the flag bridge at the crew who were all looking at him in concern. His movements were jerky and awkward as though he was suddenly no longer sure of the capabilities of his own musculature. Then his eyes met Jacob's and Jacob almost took a step back – even though the only place to go back to was his chair – at what he saw. Stevens's eyes had undergone some kind of indefinable transformation; there was nothing in them, no warmth, no humanity nothing but a cool malevolence and an intelligence that seemed as cold and cruel as space itself. With a start Jacob realised he wasn't looking at Stevens at all, not anymore, but someone or something else. Something that was using Stevens's body like a puppet master pulling on a marionette's strings.

"You are strange creatures," Stevens said in a voice that was, like his eyes, cold and which spoke with a calmness that was far more frightening than any bellow could ever be.

"Who are you?" Jacob asked, noting out the corner of his eye that the other marine guarding the flag bridge had drawn his EM-67 Lancer sidearm and had it pointed warily at the possessed man. "What have you done to my marine?"

"I use him for my voice," the alien answered, "it was important that I see you and talk to you or rather deliver a message."

Jacob raised an eyebrow. "If you wanted to talk to us you should have just hailed us," he replied, "there was no need to subject Corporal Stevens to telepathic invasion."

"What you think of it is irrelevant," the possessed Stevens replied, "I will deliver the message."

"Which is?"

"That you were foolish to enter our domain, like all aliens you are nothing compared to us."

Jacob frowned slightly at that comment and felt a chill deep inside. "I'm sure there is much our species could learn from each other," he replied. "We only want peaceful coexistence with other civilisations spacefaring or otherwise."

"Your words are empty as is your future," the alien replied shrugging Stevens shoulders as it go more accustomed to manipulating human musculature. "Before us you are nothing but cattle you will die because we demand that you die."

"Surely peace is preferable to bloodshed," Jacob said trying to be diplomatic even though the alien's arrogant attitude was starting to seriously grate on him.

"You are inferior life forms. Your very presence in the universe is a transgression against all existence. Only we have the right to exist; only we will exist. Your species like so many others before you is doomed, we will take your ships and find your world and destroy it. You will end only we will endure."

"And who are you," Jacob demanded getting annoyed now and wondering if he should have given into the impulse he'd had earlier and ordered the _Northern Horizon_ and destroyer squadron three to destroy the alien vessel.

"Who are we? You do not have any idea what you are facing do you? Very well I will tell you this, we are power. Power beyond your comprehension inferior. But we will teach you, even as we consume you."

"If you attack us we'll defend ourselves," Jacob warned. "Many have tried to destroy my people and all have failed, I urge you don't repeat their mistake. It is better for both our species to be friends rather than enemies."

Again the alien made Stevens shrug. "As I have said your words are empty as is your future inferior. You can fight and die or stand aside and die we care not which. Either way you Admiral Robyns will not be alive to see it."

As the alien/Stevens spoke it/he reacted. In a movement almost too fast to see the alien took Stevens sidearm from his armours belt and pointed the Lancer at him, finger flipping the switch the changed the weapons setting from stun to kill. Its intention was obvious as Stevens finger slowly started to tighten on the trigger…

…a bolt of energy abruptly struck the possessed marine as his compatriot opened fire on him. Immediately, apparently caught by surprise, the alien possessing Stevens stumbled even as his personal shield flared for a moment before winking out. A second charged particle bolt slamming into him, making his armour flare with energy diffusion, dropped him to his knees the Lancer skittering away harmlessly over the floor.

The alien glared angrily up at Jacob through Stevens eyes. "Y…you only delay the inevitable," it snarled a moment before being violently expelled from Stevens as a third bolt sent the marine tumbling into unconsciousness.

"Nice timing," Jacob said to Corporal Anders.

"Thank you sir," Anders replied before looking sympathetically down at his fellow marine and wishing he could do something, anything to negate the mental trauma that he knew he would have suffered.

"Admiral the signal the alien ship was directing towards us has stopped," one of the sensor techs reported. "Alien vessel is powering weapons and attempting to break orbit to move towards us."

"Raise shields. Communications contact destroyer squadron three and the _Northern Horizon_ tell them to lock onto and destroy the alien ship," Jacob ordered before looking back at Anders. "Take Corporal Stevens to sickbay; explain to the doc what happened."

"Aye sir," Anders and the senior communications officer replied in unison.

As they hurried to carry out his orders Jacob sat back down in his command chair and turned back around to face the still floating holographic screen showing the feed from the _Northern Horizon's_ forward optical scanners. The alien vessel was indeed moving out of the polar orbit it had been maintaining and angling to attack the _Achilles_ however before it could bring its bows – and presumably whatever weapons it had – to bear the four destroyers with the _Northern Horizon_ opened fire.

Multiple blue-white bolts of charged particles shooting forth from the primary weapons arrays of the four Carter-class destroyers, the bolts slashing across the distance separating them from the alien ship almost faster than the eye could see to slam home with white hot force. Immediately the alien shields flared into existence, glowing like a nova under the bombardment. A second volley followed almost immediately cracking the alien shields in a brilliant blaze of pyrotechnics, two ion bolts smashing through the collapsing barrier the first annihilating a sizeable chunk of the aliens bow superstructure. The second however slashed into the glowing energy globe at the back of the ship triggering an explosion the momentarily blinded everyone on the flag bridge despite the best efforts of automatic filters built into the optical pickups. When the glare faded all that was left of the alien was a spreading plume of dust, half molten metal fragments and cooling plasma.

Jacob sighed softly and shook his head even as he gave a mental command to the datastream dismissing the holoscreen. He regretted having the alien ship destroyed but there hadn't really been any other choice as the aliens obviously weren't interested in diplomacy and had been manoeuvring to attack his ship. Though what one small alien vessel could have hoped to do against forty-one warships – each one packing enough firepower to glass a planet in short order – not to mention a cityship he had absolutely no idea.

He started to open his mouth to give an order to communications to contact Rivendell to arrange an emergency conference with Governor Shepherd when the sensors came to life screaming urgent warnings.

"Admiral we're picking up multiple hyperspace windows opening directly astern of the fleet," the senior sensor officer reported. "Multiple alien ships emerging, we're picking up both capital ships and fighters. There weapons are powered up and they are raising shields."

"Battle stations," Jacob ordered. "All ships come about and prepare to engage hostile forces. Communications get the _Northern Horizon_ and destroyer squadron three back here now, once you've done that signal Rivendell and all ships to bring all hyperdrives back online. We're withdrawing from this galaxy until we can communicate with both command and the senate to decide our next move. Sensors how many alien ships are there?"

"Twenty capital vessels ranging in size from six hundred metres to one and a half kilometres long," sensors reported, "almost two hundred fighters. The fighters seem unusually large for their size there approximately the same size as one of the ancient Goa'uld Alkesh midrange bombers however there is only one life sign on each vessel."

"Can you tell what kind of weapons they have," Jacob asked as a tactical hologram appeared in front of him showing the strength and deployment of the alien forces. He noted that the capital ships appeared to be forming up into a wall while the fighters were approaching his manoeuvring ships in groups of three, clearly on attack vectors. Possible vector lines appeared on the hologram showing that the first group of fighters were aiming to make a strafing run over the dorsal plane of the _Achilles_ and the cruisers with her before moving on to strike at Rivendell. Simultaneously a second group of alien fighters were projected to make a similar move on the ventral plane. _A reasonable strategy if all our weapons were focused in the forward arc but a mistake with us since we have guns on every conceivable firing angle,_ he thought _._

"I'm afraid I can't be sure sir," sensors replied. "I believe they're plasma weapons of some kind however the exact nature and yield are impossible to determine."

"I see," Jacob replied as he studied the tactical feed and noted a weakness in the aliens capital ship formation, in forming into a three dimensional wall in space they were leaving there central region around three of the biggest ships exposed a tactical error that he would take full advantage of.

"Tactical instruct all fighters to move to engage the alien fighter craft, all capital ships stand by with point defence batteries," he ordered calmly. "Main batteries and drones target the centre of the alien capital ship formation. Communications instruct all cruisers along with destroyer squadrons one and two to form into a tight wedge formation with the _Achilles,_ we're going to blow right through the centre of their lines.

"Instruct the _Northern_ _Horizon_ and destroyer squadrons three and four to assume defensive formation around Rivendell. Tell them to stay in close behind us, as soon as we're all through the line we'll all jump straight into hyperspace."

"Sir what about our fighters," one of the other tactical officers asked.

"There drones commander remotely controlled from our ships, it doesn't matter too much if we leave them behind. Tell the pilot-controllers to program there ships to lock onto the closest alien vessel and ram it the moment all our ships are safely back in hyperspace."

"Aye sir. Enemy fighters coming into firing range."

"Let them take the first shots," Jacob instructed before mentally submerging himself in the datastream ready to react at the speed of thought to any changes on the battlefield. Around him and on all the other warships Tau'ri officers did the same engaging the neural interface at its full capabilities which gave them such an advantage when engaged in battle against whoever was foolish enough to challenge them to direct combat. An advantage that let Tau'ri commanders and crews react to changing circumstances at the speed of thought which gave them a rapid reaction time that hadn't been seen since the end of the Ancients.

* * *

 _Charging forward ahead of the capital ships that assumed the standard offensive wall formation of their kind the Sinhindrea Younglings piloting the fighter sets their sights on the alien inferiors who'd dared to destroy one of their warships. A thin screen of small alien fighters moved towards them but the Younglings weren't concerned as they were after all Sinhindrea and by that nature were the best pilots in the universe. To a soul they were confident that they would quickly blow through the fighters and begin attacks on the alien ships and the city flying along behind them._

 _Crossing an invisible line in space the Younglings engaged there new enemy, volleying balls of antiproton based plasmatic energy at the inferiors. Gratification gripped the Younglings as they observed a number of alien fighters explode as they took solid hits taking anyone on board with them._

* * *

Balls of burning plasma that looked more like globs of molten lava than anything else streaked across space from the Sinhindrea fighters into a handful of the dozens of drone Hornet fighters that had been detailed to intercept them. The blasts of antimatter based plasma exploded the moment they hit the fast moving but lightly armoured and shielded fighters sending a dozen of them to their doom in short lived blasts of energy flame.

Continuing forward the Sinhindrea fighters opened up on the capital ships sending blasts into the shields of the leading Tau'ri ships including the _Achilles_. Shields flashed bluish white with Cherenkov radiation as the bolts impacted and broke up, the energy sleeting ineffectively back out into space even as they outlined part of the shields that hugged close to the hulls of the Tau'ri vessels like a second skin as opposed to the more bubble shields the Sinhindrea were used to dealing with.

The Tau'ri warships fired back immediately. Small, ball-shaped point defence turrets on the warships rotated and opened up sending out rapid fire streams of light blue ion bolts at a rate of fire that the heavier main cannons couldn't hope to match. Four Sinhindrea fighters were annihilated in the first volley, their shields offering absolutely no protection against the rapid fire ion bolts that simply tore them apart. Heedless of the losses the Sinhindrea fighters pressed their attack, strafing the dorsal and ventral sides of the Tau'ri ships and drawing retaliatory fire from multiple defence turrets on multiple ships. Several more Sinhindrea fighters exploded as they took multiple strikes from multiple turrets before they were past the leading warships.

Rivendell surrounded by the thin screen of ships formed by the _Northern Horizon_ and destroyer squadrons three and four was directly in front of them. Forming up the survivors of the initial fighter wave moved to attack and ran into a literal wall of energy flak from defensive batteries on not just the explorer ship and the destroyers but which were mounted all around the perimeter of Rivendell itself. The barrage swept over the Sinhindrea fighters like an avalanche over a defenceless, unsuspecting town. In momentary bursts of liberated energy the Sinhindrea fighters disappeared – wiped from the sky as if they had never been present at all.

* * *

 **Sinhindrea Command Ship**

 _Aboard the largest of the Sinhindrea capital warships the Hunt Lord in charge of the force dispatched to engage the new inferiors roared in fury as he observed the total destruction of the initial wave of attack fighters with little to no damage being done to the inferiors in return. He noted the effectiveness of the aliens defensive batteries – they were going to be a problem as the weapons were formidable and fired at an absurdly rapid rate. The Younglings would have to be more careful in there attack runs._

 _Through the cyber link the Hunt Lord instructed the Younglings in the second and third fighter waves to adjust there attack patterns to factor in the alien defences. With the Younglings properly chastised for being overconfident and the second attack wave on its way the Hunt Lord turned his attention to the approaching capital ships and noted with surprise that the inferiors weren't spreading out to engage the whole of his forces as most of their previous enemies had._

 _Instead the enemy commander had his ships keeping a tight mutual support formation that afforded them and the flying city maximum protection while allowing them to focus heavy firepower in practically any direction they wished. A formation that was heading right for the vulnerable centre part of the assault wall._

 _Understanding came to the Hunt Lord and he felt a twinge of respect for his adversaries grow. The inferiors might be just that but they weren't fools and clearly knew how to hunt. They'd spotted the weakness in the assault wall and clearly planned to hit the wall right there with their full strength which would quickly let them breakthrough._

 _Rapidly the Hunt Lord gave fresh orders through the cyber link to the other ships of his forces even as the enemy opened fire, the bigger ships unleashing a hail of strange scintillating green beams towards a mere three battlecruisers. A ripple of shock ran through him as he observed the beams_ _completely ignore_ _the powerful shields of the battlecruisers and instead slice deep into all three ships before rupturing the dark energy power nodes – with the predictable result that all three battlecruisers exploded with appalling violence._

 _More of those lethal green beams lanced out from the inferiors ships, accompanied by a massive barrage of blue-white energy bolts. Simultaneously strange dense streams of some yellow glowing objects – that vaguely resembled his kinds Younglings but much smaller – began leaving many of the ships. Five more of his ships died immediately, exploding silently in the void of space as the enemy's immense firepower simply bypassing their shields to rip them apart with an ease that was as contemptuous as it was frightening._

 _Sending a signal to the reserves to enter the battle earlier than planned the Hunt Lord observed the inferiors as they continued approaching aiming for the gap they'd blown in the disintegrating assault wall. Even as his fleet began pulling back to reform and regroup ships died as the strange glowing projectiles arrived, as with all the alien weapons they appeared to completely ignore the shields on his ships to rip through them and emerge the other side before swinging around and attacking the same ships again until the targeted ships could take no more and simply exploded._

 _Even as the four targeted ships died the remains of the assault wall finally managed to get out of the aliens hideously long gun range. He immediately began giving orders through the cyber link to reform the fleet into a tighter formation and to advance on the enemy again. The Hunt Lord was well aware that they were probably going to their deaths but that didn't matter as the main frontier fleet – which had held back in reserve – was already coming. All he needed to do was delay the enemy long enough for them to arrive…_

… _then the inferiors would pay for all the Sinhindrea lives they'd already taken._

* * *

 **Flag Bridge**

 **TFS Achilles**

Admiral Jacob Robyns was aware that his physical body was frowning as through the electronic eyes of the ships sensors he saw the aliens pull back there forces and reassemble and assemble into a tighter battle formation directly in the fleet's path. _Hmm obviously these aliens can think on their feet and adjust their tactics on the fly if they are found wanting,_ he thought.

" _Hyperdrive status?"_ he thought spoke into the datastream.

" _All warships and the_ _Northern Horizon_ _report that there hyperdrives are back online however_ _Rivendell_ _reports that they are experiencing a problem with their main hyperdrive coolant pump, it's not restarting properly, as a result safety systems built into Arwen's programming will not allow the hyperdrive to power up and engage. They have switched over to backups but it will be another few minutes before they will be capable of hyperspace travel,"_ tactical thought spoke back.

 _Damn what a time for a hardware fault on Rivendell,_ Jacob thought with a momentary spike of annoyance at the all-powerful, bastard of a being called Murphy. They had broken through the alien offensive formation and forced them to pull back to reform, which would have been a perfect time to make the jump to hyperspace and escape.

After a moment he noted that the reformed alien ships were approaching bolts of plasma blasting forth from the long barrel-like tendrils that appeared to be there guns as they approached at a reckless speed. The few remaining drones from their first salvo immediately engaged tearing two of the remaining aliens from the sky in moments, leaving only eight ships remaining. _Why are they attacking again? They should know by now that they can't win,_ he thought feeling the _Achilles_ shudder as three antiproton based plasma balls exploded against her forward shields setting them aglow but so far doing no damage beyond forcing damage control to divert more ZPM power to the shield matrix shoring up the barrier and preventing damage.

" _Very well if this is what they want. Weapons all forward batteries resume firing upon the alien ships,"_ he ordered into the datastream again speaking with his mind ignoring the feel of his body being pulled sideways by the momentary loss of gravitational stability. _"All cruisers concentrate fire on the largest of the alien ships. Destroyers concentrate fire on smaller vessels and detail drones to intercept the next wave of enemy fighters."_

" _Aye sir."_

" _Communications contact Rivendell. Ask them for a more precise time on when they'll be able to enter hyperspace."_

" _Aye sir. Sir Rivendell reports that they will be capable of hyperspace travel in two minutes,"_ the senior comm. officer thought spoke back through the datastream.

" _Admiral, sensors are picking up more hyperspace windows opening,"_ sensors reported.

" _How many?"_

" _Sixty sir. We're now detecting sixty more alien capital ships and nearly a thousand fresh fighters moving into formation with the survivors of the first fleet."_

" _Oh that's just wonderful. Very well instruct all ships to divert as much energy as possible to reinforcing shields without affecting there hyperdrives. As soon as Rivendell is ready I want us out of here."_

" _Aye sir."_

* * *

Emerald green slicer beams, electric blue ion bolts and glowing yellow drone weapons flew from the main weapons arrays of the Tau'ri warships in an unceasing flood of raw destructive power that crashed against the shields of the Sinhindrea warships like a tsunami against an unprotected shore. It did just about as much damage as a number of Sinhindrea ships were instantly turned into expanding balls of energized flotsam at the briefest caresses of the ferociously powerful Ancient-tech based weapons of the Tau'ri.

Heedless of their savage losses the Sinhindrea fought back hard, determined to win the battle and prove their suddenly frighteningly challenged supremacy even if it cost all of them their lives, bolts of magma-like plasma flew back in an equally unceasing stream pounding against the ZPM-reinforced Ancient-style shields of the Tau'ri ships making them flare increasingly brightly as stain on the shields began to mount faster than could be compensated for.

After another fierce exchange the inevitable happened and an explosion erupted in the Tau'ri line as a destroyers shield generator overloaded under the strain it was taking and blew out. Like sharks sensing blood Sinhindrea fighters descended on the suddenly vulnerable vessel antiproton plasma bolts trigger massive explosions where they encountered and ripped through the destroyer's thin armoured hull. Secondary explosions tore through the dying vessel until one sliced through the neutrino-ion generator that was one of the ships main sources of power dumping all its energy into normal space at once. For a moment the destroyer's shattered hull contained the massive energy wave then it burst forth tearing the vessel apart in a monstrous fireball. A second destroyer followed a few moments later as its own shields gave way under the intense pummelling allowing an especially large plasma ball fired by a Sinhindrea battlecruiser to punch through its hull and detonate inside its main engine room, the resultant explosion as the engines especially the hyperdrive dissolved into their component elements tearing the once proud vessel apart.

* * *

 **Flag Bridge**

 **TFS Achilles**

Admiral Robyns frowned as he observed the destruction of the destroyers _Griffin's Wing_ and _Siren's Song_ with all hands within a few seconds of each other. He knew it was inevitable that he would lose ships as the battle continued and the strain on shields mounted – ZPM's could only reinforce shields so far after all – but he still didn't like losing people, no commanding officer worth there salt did. And the worst thing was he knew the _Griffin's Wing_ and _Siren's Song_ would only be the first to be destroyed as a glance at the part of the datastream that showed fleet status was enough to inform him that several ships were now starting to suffer significant shield damage – most were destroyers but one of them was a cruiser which was being constantly strafed by alien fighters even as it exchanged fire with two enemy capital ships.

" _Admiral, message from Rivendell,"_ communications reported, _"there hyperdrive is back online. We're ready to depart."_

" _Excellent,"_ Jacob thought spoke back a feeling of pure relief falling over him like a soothing balm, with Rivendell's hyperdrive back online they could finally leave the field of battle before he lost anymore of the people whose lives he was ultimately responsible for. _"All ships form up and engage hyperdrives. We're leaving."_

" _Aye sir."_

* * *

 **Sinhindrea Command Ship**

 _The Hunt Lord winced as a brilliant explosion besides his vessel signalled the destruction of another vessel – this one a battlecruiser assigned to support his battleship. This battle was proving to be very costly to the Sinhindrea in lives and resources, almost all there fighters had been destroyed and all surviving warships were reporting that there shields were under enormous strain repelling the powerful alien weapons hammering them, weapons that seemed to be as powerful as the alien shields which appeared to be insanely strong, easily stronger than anything the Sinhindrea had encountered in a very long time._

 _The destruction of two of the alien capital ships and all there fighters didn't really give him any joy. The price being paid was simply too high, even with reinforcements more than a third of his capital ships had been destroyed – hundreds of thousands of his people killed as the alien weapons simply tore them apart. For the first time in their history the Sinhindrea's power had proven to be inferior and he didn't like it one bit, especially as it was obvious that, even with the reinforcements, this was a battle that could not be won._

 _A change in the sensor readings of the inferior's ships caught his attention and the Hunt Lord turned his full attention to the tactical display. To see that that the aliens were moving, gathering around the large flying city, forming up into a sphere around it. Power and subspace field readings from there hyperdrives were increasing and with a jolt the Hunt Lord realised that they were about to jump._

 _Infuriated at the thought that the inferiors were going to escape after claiming the lives of so many of those who should have been infinitely greater than them the Hunt Lord commanded all ships to fire everything they had at the aliens now. Hopefully they would impact the aliens just before they jumped into hyperspace when there shields went down as it was a well-known fact that nobody could use shields in hyperspace – nobody. If they did then the battle would end with a victory, albeit an extremely costly one, for the Sinhindrea as the inferiors had shown that there ships were weak once there shields fell._

* * *

Volleys of magma-like plasma bolts flew from the Sinhindrea capital ships towards the retreating Tau'ri expeditionary fleet. The blasts of plasmatic death arrived just as the whole fleet once again combined there drive power and opened up a truly colossal hyperspace window. Fired rapidly and without any real attempt to aim the plasma assault missed the Tau'ri ships but impacted on the event horizon of the hyperspace window, with devastating results.

The moment the exotic plasma of the Sinhindrea weapons impacted the hyperspace window it flashed and rippled with rainbow colours before flickering and folding in on itself without closing. The swirling energies changed colour and before the horrified eyes of the Tau'ri crews the hyperspace window mutated and ceased to be a portal into hyperspace – instead becoming a swirling green-white funnel that looked like the vortex created when water went down a sink plughole.

Intense gravitic forces reached out from the hyperspace window turned wormhole and grabbed the Tau'ri ships. Already committed to jumping to hyperspace the crews had no chance to react even with their neural interface systems still active at full power. First the _Achilles_ disappeared into the wormhole, followed quickly by its flanking cruisers, then Rivendell and the whole of remaining fleet. As each ship crossed into the anomaly and passed through the event horizon it created a spike of gravitic energy a spike that made the wormhole expanded until its trailing edge snared one of the Sinhindrea warships.

Its engines damaged by an ion cannon strike the destroyer was unable to fight the intense gravitational pull of the mutated hyperspace window, for a moment it looked like it too would be pulled into the hungry vortex. However as it started to transit the event horizon its damaged engines blew and set off the power node mounted immediately in front of them. The blast of dark energy liberated from its reactor node spread out and merged with the swirling energies of the wormhole, breaking the super subspace symmetry that all non-Stargate wormholes needed to stay open. In a literal blink of an eye the wormhole collapsed in upon itself and vanished.

A subspace blast wave rippled out from the location where the event horizon had been and slammed into the remaining Sinhindrea warships and fighters. For the fighters the intense forces of the blast wave were too much to endure and they shattered like brittle glass before exploding. The capital warships fared better as there shields absorbed the worst of the blast. But they were still sent reeling, spinning through space out of control.

After a few moments the Sinhindrea got their ships back under control and their sensors swept the area for any sign of their prey. But there was no sign, the Tau'ri ships were gone, vanished as if they had never been present at all.

* * *

 **Codex: Weapons Technology: Personal Weapons: EM-67 Lancer**

The EM-67 Lancer is the standard sidearm used by the Tau'ri military in the 26th century. A particle beam weapon the Lancer has a number of different modes with stun and kill being the chief modes, on kill the weapons discharge is capable of punching through even solid trinium with ease. The Lancer has semi-automatic and automatic firing modes and is generally controlled by the trigger – advanced DNA sensors in the handgrip mean that only a weapons programmed owner is able to fire it.

 **Codex: Weapons Technology: Starship Weapons: Particle Slicer**

Particle slicers are advanced beam weapons possessed by all Tau'ri warships of heavy destroyer class and above. Firing a beam of super compressed, hyper accelerated subatomic particles particle slicer beams cause atoms and molecules in and around the path of the beam to undergo fission releasing massive amounts of energy causing the targets destruction. There is no know material capable of withstanding a direct strike from this weapon making it one of the most powerful and devastating anti-ship weapons every conceived.

* * *

 **Authors Note: Well here's the redo of the first main chapter of this story completed. As with the prologue there aren't that many differences with the previous version however this is hopefully going to be the last chapter where this is the case, from here on in events will be proceeding a little differently to the last two versions of this story.**


	3. Chapter Two

**Stargate Thirdspace: The Reboot**

 _ **Chapter Two**_

 **Flag Bridge**

 **TFS Achilles**

 **A Few Moments Earlier**

Admiral Jacob Robyns was aware of his physical body emitting a gasp of horror as the massive barrage of exotic plasma weapons fire from the battered and battle scarred remains of the hostile alien force impacted the fleets hyperspace window. Through the electronic eyes of the _Achilles_ sensors he observed the window distort, he half expected it to shatter and fade away as hyperspace windows had been known to do in the past when subjected to such an intense influx of unstable energies. The massive feedback from such occurrences usually lead to the destruction or at very least severe crippling of the ship generating the window as the subspace field coils that were the essential component of any hyperdrive systems overloaded and, depending on how good the automatic safety systems were, either burning out or blowing up.

Strangely however that did not happen this time. As alarms and warnings screamed through the datastream the subspace matrix of the window bent and warped and transformed into the characteristic, largely unstable format of an unanchored wormhole – one that was giving off both an extremely intense gravitational pull and a number of odd subspace emissions that the sensors couldn't immediately identify. Not that they had time to even try as the gravitational field expanded exponentially and, faster than anyone could possibly react even with the neural interface connecting all their minds to the datastream, ceased the ship in its grip.

A violent vibration ran through the decks and bulkheads of the _Achilles_ as the normally mighty dreadnought was ceased in the grip of gravitic forces that – for all the power of her sublight drives – she was completely unable to fight. Additional alarms screamed through the datastream as hyperdrive and conventional drive systems energy levels and temperatures spiked dangerously into the red – only to die moments later as automatic safety systems immediately cut all power to the propulsion systems while increasing coolant flow to the drive cores and field emitters.

With all engines off the _Achilles_ was drawn unresistingly into the wormhole. The ship rocked violently as she transited the event horizon. The datastream interface vanished from Jacobs mind as he was physically thrown out of his command chair to slam into the unforgiving trinium-carbon alloy deck with enough force that the air was instantly ripped from his lungs. From all around him – mixing with the discordant, multi-tonal screaming of Lantean-style emergency klaxons – came the pained screams and yelps of the flag bridge crew as they too were thrown out of seats by the violent shudders rattling the dreadnought.

Struggling to get his breath back so he could try to stand, Jacob glanced at the view screen at the front of the bridge. To see that the ship was now travelling down a crackling and constantly shifting green-white tunnel that looked like a more unstable, not to mention more turbulent, version of a normal hyperspace conduit. Massive arcs of what looked almost like lightning leapt between the walls of tunnel through subspace and the fleet, crackling over the starships and cityship, encasing all of them in spheres of pulsating light.

For a moment Jacob abruptly felt a strange feeling of discontinuity, the bridge seeming to flicker and for a moment out of time he could have sworn everything – and everyone – on the bridge seemed to double. Then like a mirage they faded away as if they'd never been. He didn't have any time to think about what he'd seen for at that moment he felt incredible tension and pain erupt across his whole body. It felt almost like the matter of which his body was composed was being subjected to intense stress, alternatively being compressed and pulled, twisted and torn. The pain was blindingly intense, obliterating every coherent thought in his head and tearing at his very sanity. Faintly he heard himself screaming, his screams mingling with the screams of everyone else on the flag bridge and throughout the entire fleet as they all experienced the same unspeakable physical and mental torment.

After what seemed like an eternity there came a brilliant flash of light and for a moment the torturous pain and everything else seemed to stop. All he could hear and feel was the thudding of his heart beat and the roar of blood rushing in his ears. _Am I dead, are we dead,_ he wondered, _trapped in some sort of limbo state by the wormhole?_

Reality came crashing back in with all the force of a category five hurricane and all the subtlety of a rampaging bull in a china shop. The searing pain returned with a vengeance and he couldn't help but scream from the unspeakable agony. Scream until his throat felt raw from the unbelievable torment ravaging his body and mind and making him think that he was going to go insane any second. In fact insanity right now sounded like a good prospect as it would at least make the pain go away.

Then with breath-taking suddenness the torment stopped.

For a few moments he lay completely insensate then full awareness of his surroundings returned and Jacob became aware that he was lying on the metal deck of the flag bridge. From all around he could hear the faint moaning of the crew and the urgent wailing of the emergency klaxons.

For a few moments he could only lay there on the deck, gasping and shaking with the after effects of what he'd just experienced. After a few moments he awkwardly, laboriously climbed back to his feet and looked around at the rest of the flag bridge.

A faint haze of smoke, impregnated with the scent of overloaded control crystals and burnt optical cabling hung in the air. The main lights were still on but at a reduced level indicating that the amount of power available to operate them – and presumably the amount available to the rest of the ship – had dropped substantially. Two of the smaller consoles were dark and lifeless with several more flickering fitfully. Thankfully the crew seemed to be alright, like him they were all picking themselves up off the deck and looking around to regain their bearings.

Awkwardly on legs that felt like they were made of jelly instead of skin, muscle and bone Jacob staggered back over to his command chair and sat down. Immediately he felt the familiar sensation of the command datastream unfolding at the back of his mind. Closing his eyes for a moment he relaxed into the stream, letting ship status reports flood into his awareness.

What they revealed was not encouraging.

Primary power was out throughout the whole of the _Achilles_ , leaving only the emergency naquada generators and subspace capacitor discs to provide power to essential systems like life support and artificial gravity. Shields were down and all weapons systems were currently off line. A handful of systems had been blown out by rogue energy surges, thankfully automatic repair systems were already working on restoring them. The sensors reported that they were back in normal space surrounded by the familiar arrangement of stars, moons, nebulae and planets that characterised a normal galaxy. However the navigational computer was coming as close to electronically tying itself into a knot as it could as it tried to work out exactly where the ship was. What wasn't helping was that the ship was rapidly drifting forwards with the inertia imparted by the transit through the wormhole. Sublight drives were off line however a quick check of the diagnostic system showed that the system only needed to be reset.

With what seemed like extreme effort he reached into the datastream and with a single though reset the systems. Immediately the system came back online and automatic systems cut in, addressing the dreadnoughts forward momentum and bringing the four kilometre long warship to a dead halt in space. Before he turned his attention to the short range scanner feeds, trying to find Rivendell, the _Northern Horizon_ and the rest of his fleet. To his relief he soon spotted all of them, still in formation but drifting forward on inertia just like the _Achilles_ had been. Power readings on all the ships were way down on what they should be – clearly they'd lost their main power systems as well. Only Rivendell was giving off anywhere near its normal power readings though even it was showing some energy fluctuations though the sensors on the _Achilles,_ there effectiveness substantially reduced by the extreme low power state, weren't able to determine exactly what was causing them.

"Communications," he called out his voice hoarse and weak from having screamed so loud and for so long.

"Sir," the officer on duty responded immediately his voice also weak with the side effects of the horrible pain they'd so recently experienced.

"Contact Rivendell and the other ships, I want a full crew and ship status report from all of them as soon as possible."

"Aye sir," the officer replied a moment before the overhead light crystals flickered once then brightened as full power returned to them. Throughout the ship there came a soft thrum of power as primary power returned to the dreadnought, the command datastream immediately informing Jacob that engineering had reconnected the ships two ZPM's to the power grid and were in the process of restarting the main neutrino-ion generators. The datastream also alerted him to readings from the short range sensors that showed the fleet was stabilising itself, all his ships, the _Northern Horizon_ and Rivendell coming to a dead halt in space. As the after effects of the passage through the wormhole faded the crews were obviously beginning to be their normal efficient selves and were taking steps to stabilise the fleet.

"Admiral I think you should see this," the navigation officer reported breaking into Jacob's thoughts.

"What is it," Jacob asked.

"I've managed to get the navigational computers to come back online but the systems are spitting back confusing readings. I've run standard diagnostics and the navigational systems are reading as fully operational, as strange as the readings are – they're accurate."

"What's wrong with the sensor readings?"

"Sir according to these readings we're back in the Milky Way galaxy somewhere towards the outer edge of the Orion Arm, however we can't get a precise lock on our exact location. As impossible as it seems some of the stars and celestial features around us have changed relative to our star charts and that's preventing us getting a precise lock on exactly where we are."

"What do you mean they've changed?"

"Well sir some of the stars have moved or are absent all together. From what I can tell Sol, Epsilon Eridani, Sirius, Alpha Centauri and Altair are the only stars that are exactly where they are supposed to be according to our charts. All the others are all over the place or completely absent, for example Dakara is gone in its place is a nebula, Abydos is also missing in its place is a class two quantum singularity. And there is a second nebula in the Orion cluster that isn't there in any of our charts."

"How can that be?"

"I have no idea sir."

"Transmit a copy of your data to Rivendell and the _Northern Horizon_ , maybe Arwen and Pearl can figure out what is going on."

"Aye sir," the navigational officer acknowledged hands already beginning to fly across the console as he began to carry out the order just as on the other side of the flag bridge the communications panel trilled for attention.

"Admiral we're being hailed by Rivendell, Governor Shepherd requests to speak with you immediately as a matter of utmost urgency," communications reported.

"Very well put her through."

"Aye sir."

* * *

 **Operations Centre**

 **Rivendell, A Few Minutes Earlier**

Governor Alison Shepherd was vaguely aware that someone was gently shaking her shoulder, drawing her out of the semi-conscious state that she'd descended into as a result of the searing pain that had seemingly gripped everyone in the city as they tried to escape the galaxy they'd been sent to, and its overly aggressive inhabitants. Groaning she forced her eyes open, to find one of the security marines squatting down next to her features a mask of concern.

"Are you alright ma'am," the marine asked in concern as he saw her open her eyes and blink rapidly as she began to get her bearings back.

"I'm okay," Alison replied sitting up and trying to martial the strength to get her feet back under her without risking falling over as her legs felt like they were made of jelly. "What happened?"

"As far as I can gather ma'am weapons fire from the alien warships struck the hyperspace window and mutated it into some kind of wormhole," the marine replied standing up and offering a hand to help her up, a hand that Alison gratefully accepted. "The entire fleet was pulled in, though we appear to be back in normal space now."

"I see," Alison said leaning on the edge of one of the consoles to steady herself while she waited for her legs to regain their strength. She took a moment to glance around the room and noted that everyone was only now recovering from what they'd experienced, they certainly wouldn't be able to give her a status report until they all got their bearings back. Thankfully there was another way to get an immediate report on the state of the city and all the people in it. "Arwen."

"Yes Governor Shepherd," Arwen answered as her holographic avatar blinked into existence in front of her. Like the A.I's namesake the avatar appeared as a beautiful, fragile looking elfin princess with long flowing raven coloured hair and dressed in a flowing white robe of intricate weave inset with strange runic symbols. The robe the avatar wore seemed to shimmer slightly, a purposeful feature designed to make Arwen appear almost angelic.

"Status report please, Arwen," Alison replied. "What is the condition of the city?"

"All primary systems with the exception of sublight drives read as online though several minor support systems have failed – automatic repair efforts commencing. I am also detecting a number of unusual power fluctuations on pier four however I am currently unable to identify the source as several of my internal sensors in that area have been damaged. I have dispatched repair drones, the damaged systems should be back online shortly as initial analysis shows the damage to the sensors is limited to some burned out control crystals."

"What about the population?"

"Life form scanners have revealed that all the city's population are accounted for however almost all appear to be showing signs of acute neural shock. I have begun releasing appropriate treatment agents into the ventilation systems. I am also detecting a number of individuals moving around in the more shielded areas here in the central tower, in the power plants and in the main drive control rooms. It is likely that the increased shielded in those areas reduced the neurological effects of the passage through the wormhole."

"What about the _Northern Horizon_ and our escorts," Alison asked. "Are they still with us?"

"Yes. I am reading life signs on all of our escort ships and on the _Northern Horizon_. Most appear to be quickly recovering from the effects of neural shock due to the additional shielding being present on board all the ships."

"Good. Keep me informed about those power fluctuations, Arwen. I want to know if they are anything that we should be concerned about."

"As you wish," Arwen acknowledged before blinking giving a good impression of being surprised. "Governor I am receiving a transmission from the _Achilles._ They're sending me some navigational data that I am able to confirm. We are back in normal space in the region of the Milky Way galaxy referred to as the Orion Arm however a number of the stars around us have changed from our existing records."

"How is that possible?"

"Unknown at this time," Arwen replied then the avatar gave a very realistic impression of a puzzled frown, "I am also detecting something strange, both the quantum resonance frequency of the space around the fleet has changed and there is no subspace activity of any kind registering on any of our sensors."

"None at all," Alison exclaimed shocked. Normally the Milky Way was alive with subspace activity of all kinds from the distinctive signature of wormholes between active gates, to ships travelling in hyperspace, to interstellar communications chatter. There was simply no way for there to be no subspace traffic of any kind, that hadn't happened in tens of millions of years. "Recheck your sensors Arwen."

For a second the avatar was silent, giving a good impression of a person thinking. "Readings confirmed Governor Shepherd," Arwen said at last. "There is no subspace traffic of any kind though I am picking up a lot of unusual tachyon streams and pulses travelling through a shallow subspace layer. Origin and nature are unknown. Governor based on the available information and the difference in the quantum resonance frequency of the space around us I compute that we are in the right galaxy but the wrong quantum universe."

"How could that happen?" Alison demanded even as she inwardly groaned, trans-universal travel – especially unintentional trans-universal travel – was even more of a nightmare to deal with than time travel and that was saying something. "How could we cross universes, I mean it's not like anyone around here has a quantum mirror or alternate reality drive handy."

"Unknown at this time, I can run simulations based on all available data to determine how this has occurred," Arwen suggested.

"Do it."

"Yes Governor Shepherd," Arwen acknowledged before blinking as new data registered on her sensors. "The damaged sensors on pier four are coming back online I am able to locate the source of the power fluctuations… oh dear. Governor I'm afraid I have some bad news to report."

"What is it?" Alison asked a chill going down her spine at the thought of yet more trouble. Didn't they have enough to deal with already what with being flung into an alternate universe to their own a universe where if there sensors were to be believed no one used subspace in any recognisable way?

"Sensors report that there is considerable damage to the primary power conduits in pier four," Arwen replied sounding grim. "One is completely off line having burned out and two of the remaining three are damaged causing fluctuations in the supply of energy to all systems and sections along the length of the pier. It is only a matter of time until they fail as well."

"What about the automatic systems and your repair drones? Can't they correct it?"

Arwen shook her head. "Unfortunately no the level of damage that is being detected is beyond the ability of the automatic repair systems to correct. Scans report that there is physical damage to the hyper-conductive cables and that five of the junction nodes with secondary conduits have also burned out. We will have to land and shut down the conduits in order to remove the damage cabling and replace it."

"Damn it. How the hell did this happen? Those conduits are supposed to be equipped with failsafe's to prevent any power surge causing that much damage."

"Checking logs to determine the cause of the power surge… scan complete at the moment we entered the wormhole there was a massive power surge through the hyperdrive systems including the subspace field emitters. The safety systems and surge buffers that normally prevent a backwash into the main power grid failed on the pier four emitters causing a massive surge of power through the energy grid that was beyond the grids ability to withstand. The surge spread along the whole of the pier causing a number of overloads and burnouts in the primary power conduits till it reached the core where the buffers held and dissipated the excess charge."

"Pier four is one of the main city piers. What's the status of the towers and the shield emitters are they getting enough power?"

"At the moment the towers are getting enough power, the piers main neutrino-ion generator is still functioning at peak capacity and local naquada generators have cut in automatically to make up for the shortfall in the supply of power to the towers. The shield emitters however are another story they're not getting an uninterrupted supply of power from either the city's zero point modules or the main neutrino-ion generators. As a result that section of the main shield grid is down to eighty-nine point six percent of its normal strength. It is within acceptable safety parameters for landing however it will not remain that way for long."

"How long, Arwen," Alison asked calmly while inwardly wishing she could scream in a mixture of frustration and despair. This was just too much, too damned fast. _What did we do to deserve this,_ she wondered, _all we wanted to do was investigate a new galaxy, we didn't ask for or want this to happen_.

"My analysis shows we will lose one of the damaged conduits within thirty-six hours. At which point the amount of power available to the shield grid will drop below the acceptable safety margins for landing."

"I see," Alison replied with a sigh. _I suppose it could have been worse,_ she thought. "Prepare to launch some long range survey probes and work with Pearl on the _Northern Horizon_ , we need to find somewhere to land this city as soon as possible. Also work with engineering and damage control, tell them to patch those damaged conduits up as much as possible without shutting them down. Any additional time they could buy us would be extremely welcome."

"Yes Governor Shepherd," Arwen acknowledged.

"That will be all for now, Arwen," Alison said, "keep me apprised of the situation. I want to know the moment anything changes."

"Of course Governor Shepherd," Arwen acknowledged before her avatar shimmered once then disappeared with all the fuss of a bursting soap bubble.

As the A.I disappeared Alison pushed herself away from the console she'd been using as a support and gazed around the command centre of her cityship. Anxious eyes looked back at her from the rest of the operations staff as every one of them had heard her discussion with Arwen and all of them knew that Rivendell and the hundred and twenty thousand men, women and children who called the cityship home were in considerable danger. Like her they were aware that if both of the damaged primary conduits connecting the main power plants in the core to pier four failed then the shield emitters on the affected pier would go off line as the local naquada generators and the neutrino-ion generator buried at the base of the pier would not be enough to provide them with the power they needed to maintain the shield at anywhere near safe strength. It would open up a massive hole in the cities shield grid a grid that had to remain fully intact at all times when the city was in space.

"Operations begin preparing all emergency shelters and converting all public spaces here in the core and on piers two and six into emergency accommodation," she ordered. "We're going to begin an emergency evacuation all the apartments and buildings in pier four until we've landed the city just to be on the safe side."

"Yes ma'am."

"Communications hail the _Achilles_ I need to speak with Admiral Robyns immediately. The rest of you begin prepping the city for emergency landing procedures."

"Yes ma'am," the operations staff all chorused and immediately set to the tasks she'd assigned them, everyone grateful to be doing something that would keep them too busy to really think about the danger threatening the city and everyone in it.

"Ma'am the _Achilles_ has acknowledged our request for communication, Admiral Robyns is standing by," communications reported.

"I'll take it in my office," Alison answered before crossing the bridge that connected the control room to her office on the right hand side of the mezzanine level. She was not looking forward to telling the admiral about the problem they had, truth be told she felt guilty that she would have to dump it on him as he no doubt had plenty of problems of his own right now. But she knew she had to tell him as they would need to use at least one of his ships to check out any habitable world they found and secure the system to make sure it was indeed safe for Rivendell to land as once the city was down they wouldn't be able to take off again until the damaged conduits and burned out junction nodes were replaced.

Sitting down at her desk she pressed a button on her console and a holographic communications screen blinked into existence in front of her showing the face and shoulders of Admiral Robyns. She couldn't help but notice that he looked a little frazzled but she supposed anyone would after experiencing the intense torment they'd all endured during the passage to this reality.

"Governor Shepherd, it's good to see you're alright," Admiral Robyns said in greeting.

"Likewise admiral," Alison replied. "But this isn't a social call I'm afraid, we have quite a serious problem over here due to the passage through the wormhole."

"What kind of problem," Robyns asked frowning in concern but with a hint of resignation in his eyes, like her the last thing he wanted or needed right now was for another problem to be dumped in his lap. Unfortunately for both of them that all-powerful pain in the ass being called Murphy had chosen to give the whole task force one doozy of a bad day.

"One that threatens the very future of the city," Alison answered before explaining everything that had occurred, the power fluctuations on pier four that had been traced to three damaged primary power conduits, the fact that the systems couldn't be repaired without landing the city, and the fact that the problem was going to get worse, to the point that in thirty-six hours they would lose an entire sector of the shield grid making it impossible to land Rivendell.

"We're organising an evacuation of the affected areas for the time being, that will enable us to shut down the power to the towers there and reroute it to the shields which should buy us some additional time, though how much I have no idea. We need to land this city and we need to do it soon," she concluded.

On the holographic screen the admiral looked like he had bitten an exceptionally sour lemon, concern and resignation in his eyes. "Thirty six hours," Jacob Robyns said after a few moments of silence, seemingly tasting the words. "That's not a lot of time."

"No it isn't," Alison agreed. "Finding a habitable world in time with our star charts being unreliable at best due to trans-universal displacement is going to be extremely difficult."

"Indeed," Jacob replied then frowned, "wait a minute trans-universal displacement?"

"The quantum resonance frequency of space around us is completely different to what it should be, also we are not picking up any subspace activity of any kind within our sensor range," Alison explained. "Based on both those factors Arwen believes that the wormhole created when the alien weapons impacted the fleet's hyperspace window was some kind of spatial rift that's dumped us out in a version of the Milky Way where subspace technology apparently doesn't exist."

"Wonderful," Jacob replied with a sigh though he didn't doubt the conclusions of Rivendell's A.I. The city had far superior sensors to those of the _Achilles_ capable of scanning up to a full kiloparsec in every direction. If they couldn't pick up any subspace emissions of any kind then it was a very good bet that there weren't any to be found, that combined with the changed quantum signature made the A.I's hypothesis very likely to be correct.

After a moment he sighed again. "Alright here's what I suggest we do," he said determination and resolution gleaming in his eyes, "have Arwen send out as many survey probes as possible on a comprehensive search pattern looking for a habitable world on which to land the city that's within easy travel time. I'll speak with Captain Matheson on the _Northern Horizon_ and get them to do the same. Then while the probes are searching I'll make sure a group of ships is ready to go the moment a habitable world is found."

"That does sound like the best plan," Alison agreed.

"Then I suggest that we begin immediately," Jacob replied.

"Indeed. I'll keep you apprised of any developments regarding the power situation."

"Thank you. Let's get cracking we don't have any time to waste," Jacob answered with a smile.

"That we don't," Alison agreed. "I will speak with you again soon, admiral. Hopefully I will have some better news for you then."

"I hope so to," the admiral replied with a final smile before breaking the communications link from his end making the holographic screen vanish into oblivion.

"Arwen," Alison called out prompting the A.I's avatar to blink into existence in front of her.

"Yes Governor Shepherd?" Arwen asked.

"Launch the survey probes program them to focus the search on any star with the potential for planets in the liquid water zone within two hundred light years of our current location."

"As you wish," Arwen replied, "probes programmed beginning launch sequences… all probes launched."

"Thank you, Arwen. That will be all for now." Arwen nodded once in acknowledgement of the dismissal before the holographic avatar faded out of existence. As soon as the hologram vanished Alison sighed softly to herself and leaned back in her chair. There wasn't anything she could really do now beyond hope and pray that the probes found a habitable world soon and that they were able to reach it in the time they had left before the two damaged primary power conduits in pier four gave up the electronic ghost and they lost the shields around that part of the city.

For she had no idea what they would do if they didn't.

* * *

 **Authors Note: Another chapter finished. As with the previous two there were not many changes to be made to it as it was perfectly fine and fit in with my plans for this version of the Thirdspace story. Though I have added a little bit of foreshadowing during the first segment for my planned spin-off story which is going to be a straight flung across the other side of the universe affair rather than trans-universal travel like the main fic.**

 **Also I would like to remind everyone that there will be no nipping back to their own universe in this particular fic – that will all be contained in a separate story Stargate Thirdspace: The Home Front which will run concurrent with this one until the two fics merge together later on.**


	4. Chapter Three

_**Stargate: Thirdspace The Reboot**_

 **Chapter Three**

Survey probe L17 slipped effortlessly back into normal space its compact but highly sophisticated gravitic ion sublight drive already overcoming the inertial effects of hyperspace/normal space reversion. As the probe decelerated to a virtual crawl its main sensor array activated and ran a preliminary scan of the system it had emerged in, its computer comparing the data to pre-existing data gathered by the long range sensors of both Rivendell and the _Northern Horizon_.

As the initial data had indicated the star system dominated by a bright white F-type star. A dozen planets and a dense asteroid field between the third and fourth planets filled the system with the third planet being a gas giant of similar mass to Jupiter. Nearly a hundred moons and moonlets orbited the giant planet and it was towards the second and largest of the moons that the probe headed.

As it closed in upon the Earth-sized planet the probes sensors probed the atmosphere and swiftly determined that the planet was a classic Earth-type world with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. Seventy five percent of the planet was dominated by seas with the only major landmass on the planet being a supercontinent that straddled the equator and which was dominated by dense rainforest and grass covered prairies. Sensors indicating almost immediately that the continental landmass was rich in many of the materials and elements needed in the technology of the probes makers – as were many of the other moons and moonlets that orbited the saffron coloured gas giant.

Had it been capable of such things the probes computer would have felt a profound sense of relief and satisfaction as the analysis of the scan data entered its memory banks. However the probe lacked even a basic AI matrix so the computer didn't react beyond activating its subspace transceiver array and forwarding its preliminary findings to its Tau'ri masters via an encrypted data burst before powering down the transceiver.

Moments later the probe began moving again, its compact but powerful gravitic ion engine propelling it into the inner system on a course to enter a standard orbit of the moon. A manoeuvre that took the drone craft only a few moments as it needed none of the artificial limitations on sublight confirmed that its orbit was stable its speeds imposed by the frailties of human bodies.

Once there it activated its main sensor array again and began running more in depth scans of the planet, searching for anything that could harm its masters if they came here, as well as mapping out areas that might be of interest to them.

The probe went about its duties with mechanical precision and single mindedness completely unaware that it was being watched.

* * *

 **Technomage Vessel**

Sitting in a meditative pose amid a sea of stars Alwin frowned slightly as he studied the data displayed in the tennis ball sized crystal he was holding in his left hand. He had been aimlessly wandering through this system – quietly fuming to himself over the Circles cowardly decision to start looking for a place for the order to hide out against the tide of darkness that was beginning to rise in the galaxy – when an intense energy burst had teased his ships sensors. It had garnered his full attention as it had both been a distortion in subspace, which was something none of the Younger Races who frequented this part of the galaxy used and it also didn't match anything the order had ever recorded in its long history.

The object that had emerged from the distortion – a distortion that had closed behind it – was clearly a probe of some kind. However its design and technology didn't match that of any known species be they Younger Races, Middle Born or even First One. However despite its unknown and obviously advanced nature some of the materials used in its construction were familiar. Especially the presence of a metallic quartz material that had incredible superconductive and amplification properties, the order knew the material well they had encountered it a number of times and even experimented with from time to time. In the probe the material – that the order referred to as mithril – appeared to be both a component of the silver-white metal alloy of which the probe was constructed and in a highly refined and stable liquid state. The latter especially was astonishing as all the orders experiments with mithril had shown getting the material into a stable liquid state was impossible – the few times they'd tried it had very literally blown up in their faces.

Alwyn was fascinated.

With a few hand gestures he instructed his ship to follow the probe while maintaining full stealth protection. As the ship carried out his instructions he turned his full attention to trying to learn more about this probe – which was obviously the product of a society that was far more technologically and scientifically advanced than any race this side of the First Ones. It was also obvious that whoever they were they were clearly very interested in the third planet of the system as the probe was clearly surveying it. _Probably considering it as a location for a new colony,_ he thought though he was somewhat puzzled. As far as the order knew there was no race in this part of space – other than the Vorlons or the Shadows – that had the capability to build anything like this probe and it clearly wasn't of their manufacture as the probe was purely mechanical as opposed to being organic. Either the orders records were in error – which was a very uncomfortable idea – or something else was going on, something unprecedented.

"If only Galen was here he'd love looking at this," Alwyn muttered softly to himself thinking of his old friend and fellow rebel amongst the ranks of the Technomages. The probe seemed to get more mysterious and therefore far more interesting the more he looked at it; scans that penetrated the thin metal fuselage of the device showed that there was no computer chips and indeed no electronic circuits of any known kind on board, the closest thing to electronics the probe had were cables and they themselves were thin and non-metallic in nature, though the scan could not confirm exactly what it was they were made from. The cables ran in conduits that connected to a series of small cell-like structures filled with liquid mithril – which seemed to function as the probes power source, and crystals but nothing else. Whatever the technology on the probe was it was completely different to anything he had ever seen in his life before.

A warning from the sensors brought him out of contemplation of the mystery probe. Turning his full attention to the sensor feeds Alwyn felt his eyes widen as an extremely large subspace distortion was forming in orbit of the planet. The distortion was identical to the one the probe had appeared out of only a few orders of magnitude bigger and with energy levels so high he could barely believe it. He watched in awe as the distortion peeled apart the barriers between normal space and the infinite realms of subspace and a massive aquamarine coloured vortex burst into existence in orbit of the planet.

For a few more moments nothing happened, then the vortex pulsed and ships began emerging into normal space. _A practical subspace based FTL drive system extraordinary,_ Alwyn thought as the first of the ships slowed to a virtual stop in space. They were sleek vessels, vaguely resembling the knife-like shape of a Narn warship while being distinctly different and moving with an easy grace that would make even the fastest and more graceful of Minbari vessels go green with envy. The first ships appeared to be quite small only a few hundred metres long, but as more ships began appearing the sizes went up to ships as big as an Earth Alliance Hyperion-class cruiser. Another ship appeared this one a giant four kilometre long monster followed by some more of the smaller ones, which appeared to be in a spherical formation around something that was emerging behind the massive vessel. Something that made Alwyn's jaw drop open in total astonishment as emerging from the distortion wasn't a starship as he would understand one to be. Instead it was a _flying_ city.

As the city cleared the distortion Alwyn began to really get a sense of just how big it was. Shaped vaguely like a snowflake the city was six and a half kilometres in diameter and just over one and a half kilometres tall from its base to the top of the largest of the towers that covered its upper surface. A softly glowing spherical force field, whose power levels defied the ability of his sensors to analyse, surrounded the city as it settled into orbit meanwhile behind it more of the cruiser sized vessels and the smaller corvette-sized vessels appeared out of the distortion. Following them came another large ship – though its design was somewhat different to the others in that it was more curved, with lines that gave it a more oceanic feel than the blade-forms of the other ships. As the ship cleared the distortion it began to close, folding in upon itself and vanishing as if it had never been present at all as the structure of both normal space and subspace returned to normal.

Alwyn warily eyed the fleet of ships that had appeared in orbit. That they were the probes makers wasn't in doubt as the ships seemed to be constructed of the same unknown silver-white metallic alloy. However beyond that he couldn't tell anything about them as his ships subspace scanners vexingly refused point blank to establish any sort of lock upon the aliens. The beams from his scanners simply seemed to slide off them, clearly the aliens were using a stealth device similar to the stealth systems employed by the Minbari but an order of magnitude more advanced as Minbari stealth had no effect on subspace scan emissions, unlike the one the aliens were using.

Despite the irritation of not being able to scan the aliens in any real fashion Alwyn was able to tell a few things about them due to simple observation. It was immediately obvious that all but two of the vessels were warships – all the knife-like ships had multiple hatches that no doubt covered missile or fighter launch tubes, a great many turret-mounted cannons of various sizes spread all around their hulls, as well as fixed large cannons on central axis of most of the ships ranging from one on the second smallest ships to six on the massive vessel that was presumably the alien flagship. The sheer number of weapons arrays was surprising and more than a little concerning as even the smallest vessels seemed to mount far more weapons than comparable sized warships of other races in his experience. Which suggested to him that both the alien weapons weren't particularly powerful and they needed a lot of them to make up for that lack of power or the aliens had more advanced power sources that enabled them to run a truly frightening number of weapons. Given the advanced nature of the probe he was willing to bet that the latter was indeed the case.

His sensors abruptly chimed alerting him to the fact that the aliens were beginning to thoroughly sweep the surrounding area with a variety of different sensor systems ranging from simple ladar to multi-frequency subspace scans. Alwyn immediately felt his muscles tense as the scans swept ever closer to his ship and he prepared to cast one of his dragon spells as he doubted the aliens would be pleased to find him here spying on them. The scans swept over the space where his ship was concealing itself against the dark backdrop of space and Alwyn braced himself for detection.

Nothing happened.

Alwyn let out the breath he hadn't even realised he was holding as the ship confirmed that they'd not been detected, that the ships stealth system had deflected the beams around the ship as it was supposed to. For now as far as the alien fleet was concerned he was completely invisible to them, which was a relief as given how advanced they seemed to be it wasn't likely that one of his dragons would have distracted them from capturing or destroying his ship for more than a few seconds as their sensors would have certainly revealed the dragon's nature as a sophisticated but harmless holographic projection.

Movements among the alien fleet caught his attention and he observed how the warships were starting to spread out, fanning out into a perimeter while the city and the other ship slipped into orbit. Once in orbit the city orientated itself so its underside was facing down into the atmosphere before beginning a descent into a far lower, unsustainable orbit.

With a jolt of shock Alwyn realised that the city was actually planning to _land_ on the surface of the planet. _Incredible a city-sized spacecraft that can actually land on the surface of a planet and presumably take off again,_ he though in awe _who are these people? Why has the order never seen or heard anything of a race this powerful before?_

Feeling like a young apprentice again, newly inducted into the order and getting to see the awesome and terrifying forces the Technomages could bend to their will for the first time, Alwyn waited with baited breath to see what the aliens did next.

* * *

 **Rivendell**

 **A Short Time Earlier**

"Governor Shepherd."

Governor Alison Shepherd looked up from her contemplation of her terminal screen at the sound of Arwen's voice to see that the avatar was standing on the other side of her desk. "Yes Arwen," she asked.

"We've have just received some encouraging telemetry from one of the survey probes we deployed to locate a suitable emergency landing site for the city," Arwen answered. "The probe has discovered a suitable planet that appears to be uninhabited near the outer edge of the designated search grid."

"Which probe and how far away is this planet," Alison asked feeling hope beginning to stir within her. For the past several hours she'd been carefully going over the city's emergency evacuation plans and trying to adapt them to their current situation. Further diagnostics on the shield grid had confirmed that when the Pier Four emitters failed in another twenty-eight hours it would put an incredible amount stress on the rest of the shield grid as the other emitters would expand their shield segments automatically to maintain the integrity of the atmospheric bubble around the city. Stress that the grid wouldn't withstand for more than a few days, eventually more sections of the shields would fail and Rivendell and all a hundred and twenty thousand people on board would die.

While there were evacuation plans drawn up for a cityship should it find itself facing a danger it couldn't escape from none of them had ever been practiced in anything more than an academic fashion. And all had involved the use of the Stargate in one form or another, from people walking through or ferried through by puddle jumper. A situation like the one they were currently in had simply been considered so absurd, so impossible that it had not even been researched as a theoretical contingency. To say it had been giving her a headache would have been an understatement. _Something our people will need to address if we ever find a way of getting back home,_ she thought, _though maybe now I don't have to keep thinking and planning how we're going to pull off a full scale evacuation of the city without access to a gate network._

"L17 it's in a star system eighty-one point six light years from the fleet's current location," the A.I replied sounding as relieved as she felt, "all data indicates that the planet is a classic terra-class world. As I said the planet appears to be uninhabited. It should also be noted that the planet is a moon of a gas giant and is very rich in the minerals and ores we would require to sustain ourselves and build a new civilisation should it be determined that we are permanently stuck in this universe."

"It wouldn't matter if the materials weren't present at this point," Alison reminded Arwen. "Right now all that matters is the planet is habitable meaning we can land and repair the city. If the planet didn't have the materials we would need to survive long term we could have always moved the city again at a later date. The fact that it has them is merely a bonus."

"Indeed," Arwen said nodding in agreement knowing even more than Alison that they easily had enough refined trinium, naquada and neutronium in the cities storage silos to replace the power conduits damaged by their violent translocation to this universe.

"Has Admiral Robyns been informed of the discovery?"

"I forwarded a copy of the probes telemetry to the _Achilles_ the moment the initial analysis was completed," Arwen answered.

"A simple yes or no would have sufficed, Arwen," Alison replied with a smile. "Begin preparations for immediate departure."

"Yes, Governor Shepherd," Arwen acknowledged before the avatar disappeared as the A.I set to work preparing the cities weakened power systems for both the stress of hyperspace travel and landing.

Alison smiled before standing up from her desk and making her way out of her office and crossing the short distance to the cities operations centre. "Communications hail the _Achilles,_ " she ordered.

"Aye ma'am," the officer operating the communications console acknowledged before mentally giving the command to his console. The response from the dreadnought was immediate. "Hail acknowledged, Admiral Robyns coming on the line now ma'am.

Alison nodded in acknowledgement a moment before a holographic communications screen blinked into existence in the air in front of her showing the face and upper torso of Admiral Jacob Robyns who from the people she could faintly see moving about in the background was in his command chair on the _Achilles_ flag bridge. "Admiral," she said in greeting, "it appears that things are finally starting to look up for us."

"Indeed it does Governor Shepherd," Robyns agreed. "I've been looking over the probes telemetry it appears that this planet is a perfect landing site for Rivendell. Plenty of large bodies of water for the city to set down in and no sign of any current habitation so we won't be trespassing on someone else's turf."

"It does indeed appear to be a perfect site to land the city," Alison agreed, "and it also has the advantage of being very rich in the elements that our technology depends upon should our science teams determine that we are stuck in this universe."

"Yes. That being said I would feel happier sending an advanced scout force to do a thorough reconnaissance of the planet before we take the city there," Robyns said before frowning, "but I do not believe we really have the time to do that."

"You are correct admiral we don't have time for that," Alison replied, "we have just under twenty-eight hours remaining before the power conduits on Pier Four give up the ghost and we lose power to that section of the shield grid. While the emitters in surrounding sections will automatically compensate for the loss of Pier Four's emitters it will as you know drop the cities shield strength below the level required for a safe planetary landing.

"And to make matters worse loosing those emitters is going to put the rest of the shield grid under tremendous strain," Alison continued. "A strain that according to both Arwen and the cities engineers will be unsustainable for more than three days. After that we'll lose the shields and if they go while we're still in space..."

"...so does Rivendell and everyone on board," Robyns finished before sighing and looking down and resting his chin on the knuckles of one hand, obviously thinking. After a few moments of pregnant silence he looked up again. "We don't really have a choice do we."

"Not really no," Alison replied, "we need to land the city and we need to do it soon and this is the only suitable planet that our probes have so far found."

Robyns nodded in understanding. "Then we have no choice but to take the risk," he said, "have you begun departure preparations?"

"We have," Alison confirmed before glancing at the master systems display screen at the back of the operations centre, immediately noting that the hyperdrives that propelled the massive city-sized spacecraft through hyperspace were coming online. "The cities hyperdrives are powering up as we speak," she added looking back at the communications screen, "we will be able to depart for the planet within the next few minutes."

"Very well," the admiral replied before looking to side and giving an order to one of his crew then looking back at her, "I've just ordered the fleet to begin powering up hyperdrives and to plot a course to the planet. If you'll link your navigational systems with ours we'll make the jump as soon as the fleet is ready."

Alison nodded and looked over at one of the crew and nodded. The crewmen nodded in acknowledgement of the silent order and began manipulating his console while mentally liaising with Arwen to establish a link with the main navigational computer on the dreadnought. "We're setting the link up now," she said looking back at the admiral.

"Understood. Then let's get this done," Robyns replied, "good luck."

"To all of us admiral, to all of us," Alison answered with a smile. The admiral smiled back before breaking the comm. link from his end prompting the communications screen to vanish into nothingness with all the fuss of a bursting soap bubble. "Okay people," she said turning to look at her crew, "you heard the admiral let's get this done. Status reports by station."

"Navigation ready, hyperdrives online and ready to engage."

"Life support ready."

"Engineering ready."

"Sensors ready."

"Communications ready."

"Arwen what's the status of the city?"

"All sections and systems are secure for the hyperspace transit and the commencement of landing procedures upon arrival, Governor," Arwen's voice responded from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "The fleet's hyperdrives are powering up and a course has been plotted to the system."

"Excellent. As soon as the _Achilles_ signals that the fleet is ready take us to the system," Alison ordered.

"As you wish," the A.I acknowledged as in concert with the navigational computer on the _Achilles_ she would control the length of time that the fleet's hyperdrives would remain active and at what speed they would propel them through hyperspace to their destination. After all while eighty-one point six light years would seem like an extremely long distance to an uneducated person Alison knew it was anything but to them. In fact it was quite a short distance that the fleet would cross in less than a minute with their hyperdrives running at full capacity. A human operator – even with the assistance of the neural interface – might not have been able to react in time to drop the fleet out of hyperspace precisely on target given how short the jump was going to be, a problem that Arwen with her vastly superior reaction time wouldn't have. _One of the benefits of having an A.I around to help,_ Alison thought a moment before a faint vibration began to be felt in the metal beneath her.

"Here we go," she said softly to herself as a faint but increasing humming sound joined the vibration as the cities engines came to their full power. In seconds the vibration gave way to a faint feeling of motion as the city and her escorts surged into hyperspace. A moment later though with a surge of deceleration that the inertial dampeners weren't quite able to completely cancel out the fleet returned to normal space. The sudden acceleration and deceleration produced a momentary but visible flicker in the cities artificial gravity field, a ripple that made people through the city stumble momentarily before stability returned.

"We are secure from hyperspace governor," navigation reported. "We're in a high orbit over the planet."

"Good, well done Arwen."

"Thank you, Governor Shepherd," the A.I responded sounding pleased at the praise.

"Sensors what is the rest of the fleet doing," Alison asked.

"They're moving away from us governor, deploying into a standard orbital formation," sensors reported.

"Governor we are receiving additional sensor telemetry from the probe," Arwen reported, "I believe we have a landing site located. It appears to be a large fresh water lake around the same size as Earth's Lake Superior. The lake is located between the western coastal rainforests and the prairie lands that appear to dominate the interior of the supercontinent."

"Sounds perfect," Alison agreed. "A perfect place to land. Sensors scan the lake locate the best place to land the city, ideally sheltered."

"Yes ma'am," the sensor operator acknowledged hands dancing across her console. In response, silent invisible beams of energy reached out from the cityship, swept down through the planet's atmosphere and carefully scanned the massive lake that probe L17 had located on its follow up surveying scans, searching for the ideal place in the lake to land Rivendell.

After a few moments of patience searching she found what she was looking for. "I have it ma'am," she reported, "it's a large bay on the lakes north eastern shore, a river appears to flow out of it. At its widest point the bay is more than deep enough for the city to land and the current is quite weak."

"Excellent. Program to coordinates into the navigation system then commence landing sequence."

"Yes ma'am," came the response from the respective operators. A moment later a chiming sound echoed throughout the city as every terminal and intercom speaker came to life.

"Warning, warning, landing sequence initiated all personnel prepare for atmospheric entry," Arwen's voice said throughout the city, "atmosphere entry in one minute and twenty seconds. Repeat, landing sequence initiated, all personnel prepare for atmospheric entry, atmosphere entry in one minute and fifteen seconds."

* * *

As Arwen's voice echoed throughout Rivendell, prompting personnel to brace themselves for the normal turbulence of atmospheric entry, the city slowly began to move. Breaking the orbit it had previously maintained Rivendell descended into a lower orbit and dropped its speed down below the level needed to maintain such an orbit.

Seemingly in slow motion the gigantic snow-flake shaped spacecraft surrounded by the cocoon of its shields dropped lower and lower, eventually crossing the fuzzy boundary of the planet's atmosphere. Immediately tenuous upper atmosphere ions began encountering the cities shields and flashed to plasma on contact with the coherent energy barrier making the shield glow softly.

The fiery glow increased as the city plunged deeper into the atmosphere and it got thicker and thicker around her. Glowing streams of superheated gasses raced across the shield spreading across the whole lower hemisphere of the shield even as more and more atmospheric atoms were annihilated on contact with the shield forming a seething, roaring sheath of plasma. And still the city descended its speed and angle being precisely adjusted as required by automated systems. To anyone watching it from the ground it would have seemed like a meteor was streaking towards them, trailing flames as the plasma sheath grew hotter and hotter, putting more and more stress on the city shields. Shields that despite the damage sustained during the transport from the cities home universe continued to handle the strain being placed on them by the plasma sheath.

The descent continued and the plasma sheath began to weaken and evaporate as the city entered thicker air. In moments the fire dissipated completely as the city continued its descent passing through the clouds. A shockwave of supersonic wind blasted through the atmosphere for hundreds of miles around the descending spacecraft. Wind that tore apart all the local weather patterns, blowing the tenuous clouds and even the odd thunder cloud apart as if they were nothing. Surface winds were whipped into a frenzy sending native fauna running in instinctual panic, not understanding or even comprehending what was really happening.

When barely a mile remained between the descending city and the ground Rivendell decelerated sharply coming to a hover over the surface of the part of the massive lake that was its chosen new home. Below the wind created by the cities passage through the atmosphere had whipped the formerly placid surface of the lake into a foaming, stormy frenzy. Giant ripples abruptly replaced the stormy waves as the downward force of the cities ventral anti-gravity thrusters disrupted the wave patterns producing the same effect that stones dropped in water would.

With a soft flash the ventral shields deactivated leaving nothing between the metal skins of the cities underside but air. Then with the grace of a descending snowflake in a gentle flurry the city once more began to descend. With a gentleness that would have seemed utterly unbelievable for its size Rivendell's underside made contact with the water sending out the smallest of splash waves as it did so.

Immediately the cities thrusters and engines shut down leaving it floating on the surface. The rest of the cities shields deactivated, exposing the whole city to the atmosphere of the new world for the first time. Throughout the vast city a down-scaling humming sound could be heard as the propulsion and inertial dampening systems powered down.

Rivendell had landed.

* * *

 **Technomage Vessel**

 **That Same Time**

Alwyn was sure that he was doing a very good impression of a cod-fish as his mouth hung open in astonishment at what he had just witnessed. He could barely believe that he had been right; the city-sized spaceship had descended into the atmosphere and landed on the surface, choosing a wide sheltered bay on the shore of a massive inland lake as its landing site. The sheer knowledge of science and engineering needed for such an amazing feat was almost beyond his comprehension.

"Galen you and Isabel would have loved to have seen this," he said softly to himself thinking of his old friends as he mentally shook himself back to awareness. Now that the city had landed he had a decision to make, whether to stay here and see if he could learn anymore about this powerful but very mysterious new race or he could withdraw for now, go see the Circle and inform them of this development as it would certainly be of great interest to them. Whether it would rouse enough curiosity from them to put their plans to find a hiding place on hold – at least for a time – he didn't know.

 _Alternatively I could do both,_ he thought with a smile before making another hand gesture while speaking a spell. A moment later the ship gave a soft, almost imperceptible shudder as a small, stealth probe was launched towards the alien fleet. As long as the aliens didn't detect it he would be able to use it to watch these unknowns from a distance via electron incantation while he informed the Circle and some others like Galen about what had happened, the incredible things he had seen the unknowns do so far.

His decision made Alwyn began to guide his ship away from the planet, while he could jump into hyperspace from his current position it wouldn't exactly be very subtle as the aliens sensors would certainly immediately detect the jump point opening. To preserve the secrecy of his presence here he would take the ship to the edge of the system and use the outer most gas giant as a shield to hide his departure.

Once in the safety of hyperspace he would begin the journey to the place of power where the Circle met and present them with his ships recordings of what he had witnessed here today. He couldn't begin to guess how they would react to it all but he did know one thing…

…it was going to be interesting.

* * *

 **Authors Note: Well here's the next chapter of the rewrite of this fic. I decided to keep it just like it was in the last version, beyond a little clean up here and there, as the Technomages are going to have a role to play in the future and them having some knowledge of Rivendell's existence is proof of that. Of course when they'll appear in the fic again I'll leave to your respective imaginations.**

 **This is probably going to be the last chapter that is kept as per the earlier versions of this story, I would like to however remind everyone that the home universe parts of the story will now take place in a separate story that will eventually merge back into this one – or its successor if I actually get that far this time – further down the line.**

 **Until next time.**


End file.
